^RKBStmh>?«f 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

ENVIRONMENTAL  DESIGN 
GIFT  OF 

PROFESSOR  HOPE  GLADDING 


ITALIAN 
RENAISSANCE    FURNITURE 


BY 


WILHELM  von  BODE 


TRANSLATED   BY 

MARY  E.  HERRICK 


WITH    134    ILLUSTRATIONS 


WILLIAM   HELBURN,  Inc. 

418  MADISON  AVENUE 

NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHTED    192? 

BY 

WILLIAM    HELBURN,  INC. 


Add'! 

ENV 
DESIGN 


DESIGN 

INTRODUCTION  Llsmi1 

For  some  years  past,  so  lively  an  interest  has  been  manifested  in  Italian 
furniture  of  the  Renaissance,  and  also  of  the  periods  subsequent  thereto,  that 
the  publication  of  this  book  needs  no  apology. 

Two  books  hitherto,  George  Leland  Hunter's  Italian  Furniture  and  Inter- 
iors and  William  M.  Odom's  History  of  Italian  Furniture  from  the  Fourteenth 
to  the  Early  Nineteenth  Centuries,  have  ministered  to  the  general  desire  for 
information  upon  this  topic.  Various  magazines,  especially  House  and  Garden 
and  Good  Furniture,  have  published  sundry  well  illustrated  articles  upon  the 
subject.  The  museums  in  different  parts  of  the  country  have  made  praisewor- 
thy efforts  to  acquire  and  to  display  appropriately  the  best  specimens  of  Italian 
mobiliary  art  tbey  could  obtain.  Architects  and  decorators  have  extensively  em- 
ployed Italian  pieces  in  equipping  houses  with  whose  furnishing  they  were 
commissioned,  and  in  numerous  other  ways  a  taste  for  Italian  furniture  has 
been  so  stimulated  that  furniture  manufacturers  are  producing  tables,  chairs, 
chests,  and  other  objects  of  domestic  appointment  from  designs  admittedly 
inspired  by  Italian  models,  while  industrial  art  schools  are  paying  more  or  less 
attention  in  their  courses  to  the  work  of  Renaissance  Italian  cabinet-makers. 

On  the  one  hand,  in  many  cases  where  the  design  of  houses  has  been  per- 
ceptibly influenced  by  Italian  ideas,  there  is  naturally  provided  a  background 
either  suitable  for  the  use  of  furniture  of  kindred  provenance,  or  indeed  actu- 
ally requiring  it.  On  the  other  hand,  not  a  few  interiors  of  composite  and 
eclectic  inspiration  are  so  constituted  architecturally  that  they  supply  a  kindly 
foil  and  invite  the  employment  of  just  such  movables  as  Italian  Renaissance 
design    affords. 

In  either  case  a  sound  knowledge  of  the  forms  and  methods  practised  by 
the  Italian  craftsmen  is  an  essential  desideratum  not  only  for  the  architect,  the 
interior  decorator,  the  furniture  designer,  and  the  student  of  industrial  art,  but 
also  for  the  layman  of  cultivated  tastes  and  a  catholic  sense  of  appreciation. 
Such  a  volume  as  this  cannot  fail,  therefore,  to  be  a  welcome  addition  to  the 
literature  upon  the  subject — a  literature  that  is  none  too  large — and  it  will  sub- 
stantially contribute  to  foster  understanding  of  a  rich  field  of  decorative  art 
whence  we  may  draw  both  pleasure  and  many  a  profitable  lesson. 

Study  of  the  plates  and  the  accompanying  data  will  reveal  not  only  a  con- 
siderable diversity  of  decorative  processes,  used  either  singly  or  in  combina- 
tion, but  also  the  workings  of  a  marvellously  fertile  invention  in  the  marshall- 
ing and  adaptation  of  a  wealth  of  decorative  motifs.  Each  part  of  Italy  was 
so  strongly  individual  in  its  manifestations  of  the  decorative  arts,  no  less  than 
in  the  developments  of  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture,  that  it  is  not  sur- 
prising to  find  these  local  individualities  plainly  reflected  in  the  furniture  pro- 
duced, although,  of  course,  there  is  unmistakably  present  the  bond  of  an  in- 
forming spirit  of  design  common  throughout  the  whole  country  at  any  given 
period. 

3 

7G5 


The  plates  in  the  ensuing  pages  are  so  arranged  that  it  is  possible  to  trace 
both  the  local  differences  and  the  general  underlying  similarity.  The  reader 
may  examine  Tuscan  types  in  one  place,  Ligurian  in  another,  Umbrian  in  a  third 
division,  and  so  on  through  Lombard,  Venetian,  Roman,  and  all  other  local  man- 
ifestations. This  arrangement  of  the  book,  in  a  manner  conducive  to  conven- 
ient comparison  and  analysis,  will  be  found  one  of  its  most  valuable  features. 

Italian  interiors  of  the  period  when  the  pieces  illustrated  were  made,  and 
for  the  appointment  of  which  those  pieces  were  intended,  may  be  broadly  classi- 
fied as  being  severely  restrained.  Interiors  of  the  former  category  were  elabor- 
ate in  the  composition  of  their  fixed  decorations  and  displayed  all  the  wealth 
of  polychrome  treatment  that  could  be  devised  in  the  way  of  either  frescoes  or 
diapered  patterns  for  the  walls;  not  infrequently  there  was  the  added  embellish- 
ment of  panelling  composed  of  carved  and  inlaid  wood,  or  of  colored  marbles; 
and  the  ceilings,  whether  plastered  and  painted  with  glowing  designs,  or  beamed 
with  carved  corbels  and  polychrome  enrichment,  correspond  in  splendor  with 
the  walls. 

Interiors  of  the  second  category  were  simple  in  scheme,  often  to  the  extent 
of  austerity,  and  depended  for  their  distinction  upon  the  emphasis  of  enrich- 
ment concentrated  at  one  or  more  points  where  it  would  prove  most  effective. 
The  concentrated  enrichment  might  consist  of  the  painted  and  gilt  corbels, 
beams,  and  panels  of  the  ceiling;  of  polychrome  doors;  or  of  an  elaborately 
wrought  fireplace.  For  the  enhancement  of  the  spots  of  color  or  carving,  the 
plain  walls  served  as  admirable  foils. 

In  either  case  it  was  necessary  to  the  best  results  that  the  furniture  be  rich 
in  quality.  For  the  ornate  interior,  rich  workmanship  was  essential  to  render 
the  furniture  in  keeping  with  its  highly  organized  background.  On  the  other 
hand,  richly  wrought  furniture  in  a  room  of  austere  character  ensured  the  val- 
uable element  of  contrast. 

Italian  rooms  of  the  Renaissance  period  were  sparsely  furnished  according 
to  the  notions  of  many  people  at  the  present  day.  In  a  country  like  Italy,  where 
it  is  not  only  possible  but  inviting  to  live  in  the  open  for  so  great  a  part  of  the 
year,  and  where  so  much  use  is  made  of  the  gardens,  there  is  no  occasion  for 
houses  to  be  so  fully  furnished  as  in  more  northern  latitudes  where  a  far  greater 
proportion  of  the  time  must  inevitably  be  spent  within  doors. 

When  the  domestic  habits  of  the  period,  and  other  conditions  also,  dictated 
the  employment  of  a  relatively  small  number  of  pieces,  it  was  possible,  and  in- 
deed natural,  in  accordance  with  the  ideal  of  quality  rather  than  quantity,  to 
make  each  item  of  furniture  a  finished  work  of  art,  complete  in  itself  and  not 
dependent  upon  adjacent  pieces  to  give  it  its  value.  Even  when  cassoni  were 
made  in  pairs,  to  give  symmetry  of  contour  in  certain  places,  the  decorations 
often  displayed  not  a  little  variation.  The  masters  of  the  time  understood  har- 
mony without  stupid  iteration,  and  the  pernicious  idea  of  iresome  "tweedle-dum 
and  tweedle-dee"  repetition  in  so-called  suites  was  left  to  a  less  inventive  age 
to  exploit. 

Another  element  that  contributed  to  strong  individualism  exhibited  by  sep- 


arate  pieces  was  the  fact  that  eminent  artists  in  that  age  of  manifold  activities 
often  "deemed  it  worthy  of  their  best  efforts  to  design  a  single  piece  of  furni- 
ture and  execute  it  with  their  own  hands."  When  Botticelli  or  Andrea  del  Sar- 
to,  and  the  ablest  of  their  pupils,  painted  cassone  panels,  or  when  Donatello  or 
Bernardino  Ferrante  wrought  the  carving  of  a  chest,  a  table,  or  a  cassa  panca, 
we  may  well  understand  why  each  object  possessed  so  much  character. 

With  some  preliminary  conception  of  the  rooms  themselves,  and  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  furniture  that  went  into  them,  the  student  of  Renaissance  decor- 
ative art  may  go  on  to  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  pieces  illustrated  in  this 
book.  One  fact,  however,  must  be  borne  in  mind.  The  compiler  chose  for  illus- 
tration chiefly  examples  of  what  are  usually  called  "museum  pieces."  Within 
the  compass  of  a  small  book,  where  it  is  impossible  adequately  to  illustrate  the 
entire  mobiliary  development  of  an  age,  it  is  quite  defensible  to  select  the  finest 
pieces  of  their  several  kinds  for  presentation.  But  we  must  remember  that 
much  of  the  simpler  furniture  of  the  period,  while  not  possessing  the  sumptuous 
carved  or  painted  enrichment  of  the  master-pieces,  nevertheless  had  a  goodly 
share  of  grace  of  form  and  dignity  of  ornament. 

Those  minded  to  pursue  the  subject  further  will  finr4  admirable  collections 
accessible  for  study  in  the  museums  of  the  Italian  cities,  in  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum  in  London,  and  in  the  different  American  museums — especially  in 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Brooklyn  and  Chicago — where  new  acquisi- 
tions are  continually  being  made  and  where  every  facility  is  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  student. 


FOREWORD 

The  invitation  to  work  upon  a  second  edition  of  the  Manual  of  Italian 
Furniture  of  the  Renaissance  came  to  me  from  the  House  that  published  it  in 
1902,  with  an  accompanying  question  regarding  translations.  This  gave  me 
agreeable  proof  of  consideration  for  my  efforts  to  bring  together  the  widely 
distributed,  and  tor  the  most  part  neglected,  material,  which  I  have  endeavored 
to  place  in  its  order  with  reference  to  the  period  and  the  school  to  which  it  be- 
longed. I  know  that  it  was  only  an  attempt,  and  that  it  is  on  the  whole,  the 
first,  so  in  many  respects  it  needs  completion  and  rectification.  Although  the 
value  ot  their  art  handicraft  is  well  understood  in  Italy,  the  authorities,  until 
now,  have  fur  the  most  part  hindered  any  consideration  of  it,  on  account  of 
their  anxiety  to  keep  their  pictures  and  works  of  art  in  the  country.  Unfortu- 
nately, in  the  meantime  the  ever-diminishing  stock  of  old  furniure  will  be  so 
thoroughly  ransacked  by  the  art  dealer  that,  later,  what  has  been  neglected  can 
never  be  recovered.  Italy  is  indebted  to  several  art  inspired  collectors  and  deal- 
ers that  there  are  at  present  in  Italian  museums  the  beginnings,  at  least  after 
some  correction,  of  a  number  of  excellent  collections.  Ahead  of  all  the  rest  are 
those  of  the  Marchese  d'Azeglio,  in  the  Museo  Civico  at  Turin  and  in  his  castle 
in  the  hills  of  Piedmont;  ot  Cav.  Poldi  Pezzoli  in  Milan,  whose  museum  is  the 
foremost  art  foundation  of  Italy;  of  the  brothers  Bagatti-Valsecchi  in  Milan: 
of  the  Frenchman,  A.  Carrand,  who  in  his  collection  of  small  works  of  art  and 
in  the  art  craft  work  of  the  National  Museum  of  Florence,  has  left  behind  him 
a  priceless  gift;  of  the  dealer  in  antiques,  Elia  Volpi,  who  in  fitting  up  his  ad- 
mirably restored  Davanzati-Davizzi  palace  in  Florence,  has  given  a  wonderful 
example  of  Italian  furniture  and  its  placement.  Since  a  satisfactorily  complete 
assemblage  of  these  things  is  no  longer  possible,  it  is  the  more  important  that 
those  scattered  about  in  the  museums  and  found  in  the  collections  of  other 
countries  should  be  intelligently  sifted  and  the  results  compiled.  In  order,  how- 
ever, gradually  to  arrive  at  a  trustworthy  representation  of  the  house  furnish- 
ings of  the  different  parts  of  Italy,  it  should  be  the  special  task  of  our  Italian 
colleagues  to  bring  together  as  completely  as  possible,  the  material  concerning 
them  to  be  found  in  contemporary  pictures,  documents,  and  writings;  a  task 
which  I,  unfortunately,  on  account  of  my  age  as  well  as  my  infirmity,  cannot 
undertake. 

For  help  in  my  work  I  have  particularly  to  thank  the  great  Italian  dealers 
in  antiques  through  whose  hands,  for  the  last  ten  years,  the  most  and  the  best 
ol  Italian  furniture  has  passed,  and  especially  Messrs.  Stefano  Bardini,  Elia 
Volpi,  and  Lu;gi  Grassi,  of  Florence. 

BODE 


FLORENCE   AND   TUSCANY 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Italian  living-room  was,  according  to  our  present 
day  conception,  almost  bare.  As  even  now  in  the  old  Italian  peasant's  house 
(those  of  the  Province  of  Venetia  yet  show  plainly  the  old  Longobard  type)  the 
hearth  in  the  middle  and  the  masonry  about  it  form  the  natural  abiding  place  of 
the  inhabitant  in  the  cold  and  damp  seasons,  so  the  chimney-piece,  usually  of. 
colossal  form,  was  the  most  prominent  feature  and  obviously  the  central  point  in 
the  room  of  a  medieval  palace.  Around  the  walls  were  benches  which,  by  open-, 
ing  the  seat,  could  be  used  at  the  same  time  as  chests  and  on  these,  at  least  in 
certain  rooms,  great  soft  cushions  made  the  seat  more  comfortable.  A  long  table 
(only  in  exceptional  cases  were  there  more)  stood  in  front  of  the  benches; 
more  often  it  was. set  up  before  them  when  it  was  needed,  being  made  up  of 
two  trestles  holding  a  heavy  plank.  Near  by,  and  before  the  hearth,  stood  una- 
dorned stools  in  braided  straw.  In  a  smaller  room  a  low  bed  was  constructed, 
with  high  steps  running  around  it  that  were  used  both  as  chests  and  as  seats, 
a  row  of  unornamented  stools  and  chairs  being  the  only  additional  furniture. 
To  accommodate  the  necessary  household  utensils  and  vessels,  where  they  did 
not  find  a  place  in  the  chests,  cupboards  were  built  into  the  thick  walls  of  the 
rooms  and  chambers.  These  were  seldom  closed.  This  scanty  furniture  was 
of  a  simple  form  and  substantial  build;  it  was  handed  down  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another  without  much  change  or  addition. 

The  new  period — the  Renaissance — did  not  at  first  cause  any  fundamental 
change  in  this  disposition  of  household  effects;  it  found  its  task  in  this  field  in 
the  perfecting  of  church  furnishings.  The  choir  stalls,  the  bishop's  throne,  the 
pulpit,  the  organ,  the  sacristy  wardrobes  and  desks,  the  framing  ot  the  altai 
pictures,  and  the  like,  had,  particularly  in  Florence,  large  monumental  form, 
and  were  enlivened  not  only  by  modest  wood-carving  and  beautiful  intarsia, 
but  occasional^  also  by  the  finest  coloring  through  painting.  Moreover  the 
town  halls,  hospitals,  libraries,  and  other  public  buildings,  were  fitted  up  with 
similar  furniture,  at  times  even  very  splendidly. 

First  toward  the  middle  of  the  XV  century,  outside  Florence  first  in  the 
second  half  of  the  Quattrocento,  with  the  urge  of  individualism  and  the  more 
pronounced  cultivation  of  the  ego,  the  demand  for  richer  and  more  comfortable* 
furnishings  for  the  house  became  livelier  and  more  general.  In  the  time  of 
the  great  Medici  and  under  their  leadership  the  Florentine  house  acquired  its 
modern  furnishings;  new  forms,  even  new  combinations  of  furniture,  answer- 
ing to  the  modern  demand  for  comfort,  were  found  and  perfected.  In  this  de- 
velopment the  influence  of  church  furniture  betrays  itself  plainly  in  the  severe 
straight  forms,  in  the  frugal  disposition  of  effective  carving,  as  in  the  prefer- 
ence for  coloring  by  means  of  painting  and  gilding,  and  notably  through  the  use 


of  different  colored  woods.  The  further  development  of  Florentine  cabinet 
work  is  based  on  the  forms  that  were  found  in  this  time.  Michelangelo's 
activities  as  sculptor  and  architect  had,  in  the  second  and  third  decade  of  the 
Cinquecento,  even  in  this  handicraft,  a  different  significance.  His  ''cabinet  ar- 
chitecture," as  Jakob  Burckhardt  in  his  "Michelangelos  Innendekoration  in  der 
Laurentiana"  and  in  the  "Gruft  der  Mediceer,"  indicates,  brought  to  architec- 
ture entirely  new  forms  and  concepts;  it  offered  an  abundance  of  motives  for 
cabinet  work,  capable  of  development.  Thence  came  the  characteristic  Baroque 
movement  in  form,  and  especially  in  the  decoration,  of  the  Florentine  High  Re- 
naissance. The  form  with  movement  and  ornament  full  of  expression  led  to 
abandoning  the  coloring  of  furniture,  which  was  left  in  its  natural  hue,  strength- 
ened, to  be  sure,  with  color  pigment  and  the  well  toned  gilding  of  certain  pro- 
jecting ornaments.  It  was  after  the  middle  of  the  century  that  the  forms  be- 
came simpler  and  more  architectural,  for  that  reason,  however,  more  useful  and 
less  picturesque. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  important 
pieces  of  Renaissance  furniture  is  the  chest,  cassa,  or  cassone,  which  is  of  great 
significance  in  the  life  of  the  Italian.  Since  the  chests  by  the  bed  were  consid- 
ered the  principal  pieces  in  the  outfit  of  a  young  married  couple,  the  most  im- 
portant ones  were  designated  bride,  or  wedding,  chests.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
chests  were  used  also  as  portable  furniture  and  because  of  the  roving  life  led 
by  the  richer  classes,  nobility  as  well  as  merchants,  were  transformed  into  trav- 
elling baggage  in  many  different  ways.  Before  everything  the  chest  carried, 
with  the  clothing,  money  and  jewels,  that  on  account  of  the  uncertain  condi- 
tions, could  not  safely  be  left  at  home.  Serving  this  purpose  gave  to  them,  in 
Italian  as  well  as  in  French  the  name,  cassa  or  coffret.  It  was  necessary  to  put 
into  the  "coffers"  at  the  same  time  clothing,  laundry,  and  all  kinds  of  useful 
things,  even  to  beds,  carpets,  weapons,  cooking  utensils,  and  so  on,  to  take  with 
them,  as  the  inns,  when  there  were  any,  for  the  most  part  offered  nothing  but 
bare  walls  and  a  hearth  or  a  fireplace.  On  that  account  they  took  care  so  to 
arrange  these  cotters  or  chests,  inside  and  out,  that  they  could  turn  them  into 
seats  or  tables.  People  of  rank  took  with  them  on  their  travels  numerous  large 
and  small  coffers.  So  we  find  with  the  permanently  fixed  wall  bench  (Which 
was,  we  have  said,  used  to  hold  linen  and  clothing),  also  movable  chests;  these 
stood  around  the  sides  of  the  room.  In  the  fifteenth  century  and  even  until  the 
sixteenth,  these  (the  wedding  chests)  were  decidedly  the  most  valued  and  the 
most  sumptuous  pieces  in  the  palace,  particularly  in  Tuscany.  Here  there  was 
an  independent  guild  of  chest  painters,  among  whom  occasionally  the  foremost 
artists  undertook  the  decoration  of  chests  and  similar  pieces,  laying  out  on  them 
rich  compositions  with  antique  and  allegorical  motives.  From  the  unusually 
numerous  pieces  that  have  been  preserved,  Paul  Schubring  in  his  splendid  work, 
"Cassoni,"  has  brought  out  a  very  complete  group  of  Early  Renaissance  chests 
and  chest  paintings.  Their  rich  artistic  embellishment  seems  notably  to  have 
come  out  of  the  great  hospitals,  foundling  asylums,  and  similar  institutions,  such 
luxury  indicating  the  possession  of  a  considerable  revenue.  Among  a  number  of 


such  chests  that  came,  in  1880,  into  the  dealers'  hands  from  the  storehouse  of  S. 
Maria  Nuova,  were  characteristic  examples  of  such  Florentine  cassoni  of  the 
3nd  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.  They  are 
mostly  high  and  have  a  rounded  cover,  so  they  could  not  have  been  used  as 
seats.  On  a  painted  ground  a  moulded  decoration  in  color  is  applied;  knights 
and  minnesingers,  conventionalized  animals  and  plants,  or  ornaments,  bedecked 
the  different  sides  and  the  cover;  between  them  were  flat  gaily  painted  iron 
hoops.  A  pair  of  these  chests,  that  had  been  preserved  in  their  own  place  and 
position,  are  now  in  the  Museo  Nazionale  in  Florence  (111.  1).  At  the  same  time 
(1400)  essentially  smaller  and  lighter  chests  for  private  use  were  produced 
that  were  flat  on  the  top,  and  on  the  front,  toward  the  bottom,  were  arched, 
and  had  a  short  foot-board  beneath.  These  were  painted  with  the  arms  and 
emblems  of  the  family  (111.  2).  Only  these  and  similar  light,  plain  chests  could 
be  taken  on  journeys. 

The  Florentine  chests  of  the  fifteenth  century  have  regular  straight  sides, 
flat  or  slightly  rounded  covers,  and  strong  simple  bases  with  or  without  lion  feet. 
A  frequent,  very  characteristic  variety  of  these  chests  that  originated  in  Tus- 
cany in  the  Cinquecento,  is  decorated  on  the  front  with  gilded  low  relief  in  ap- 
plied forms  of  moulded  plaster:  plants  (copied  from  contemporaneous  patterns 
for  stuffs),  animals,  emblems  and  fabulous  beasts,  all  done  in  a  very  conven- 
tional, heraldic  manner.  Occasionally  also  there  were  sumptuous  compositions, 
notably  of  battles,  the  tasks  of  Hercules,  allegorical  or  mythological  figures  or 
scenes  (111.  3  to  5),  that  were  at  times  modelled  by  prominent  artists,  but  they 
also  were,  as  a  rule,  treated  very  conventionally.  These  appear  in  Florence  as 
well  as  in  Siena  and  the  neighboring  cities.  The  vaulted  or  curved  top  was  cus- 
tomarily gilded  and  had  a  simple  decoration  of  carving  or  applied  low  relief: 
on  the  ends  were  painted  coats-of-arms  or  ornaments,  and  iron  handles  for 
lifting  the  chest. 

The  partiality  for  inlaid  woodwork  in  the  Quottrocento  led  to  the  employ- 
ment of  intarsia  also,  in  the  ornamentation  of  the  chests,  that  were  then  of  un- 
usually stately  construction,  with  fine  profile  work,  as  well  as  consummately 
beautiful  design.  A  number  of  the  most  noted  Florentine  architects  and  sculp- 
tors were  from  birth  intarsia  workers  and  kept  their  flourishing  and  remunera- 
tive workshops  near  by,  even  when  they  were  among  the  most  sought  after  of 
the  architects.  From  these  shops  the  stately  chests  went  out  that,  as  we  see  in 
pictures,  were  also,  on  account  of  their  height,  turned  into  tables  (111.  page  7); 
the  decorations  on  the  front  of  these  showed  putti  with  wreaths,  or  on  each  side  ' 
of  a  coat-of-arms,  city  views,  musical  instruments,  and  the  like;  more  rarely  a 
rich  composition  in  intarsia  is  shown,  while  the  moulding  consists  of 
delicate  ornament  that  is  also  done  in  woods  (111.  8-11). 

How  cherished  the  chests  of  this  time  were,  and  how  they  were  valued,  is 
best  witnessed  by  the  number  of  such  cassoni  that  are  decorated  with  paintings 
by  the  hands  of  the  foremost  Florentine  painters.  Among  famous  chest  painters 
like  Dello  Delli,  Marco  del  Buono.  Apollonio  di  Giovanni  and  others,  Pesellino, 
Botticelli,   Filippino.   Paolo   Uccelli,   Signorelli,   Piero   di   Cosimo   and  other  re- 


*  nowned  painters  of  the  Quottrocento,  in  Florence  as  well  as  Siena,  have  decor- 
ated chests.  Even  in  the  first  decade  of  the  Cinquecento  we  see  prominent  ar- 
tists like  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Franciabigio,  Granacci,  Bacchiacca  and  Pontormc 
engaged  in  the  work.  "Not  only  in  the  Medici  Palace  and  in  all  old  Medician 
houses,  but  in  ail  the  principal  houses  in  Florence  one  finds  such  chests  even 
yet,"  Vasari  relates.  The  painted  sides  of  these  chests  decorate  today,  as  paint- 
ings, the  largest  museums. 

The  favorite  subjects  are  tales  borrowed  from  the  Old  Testament,  the  an- 
cient sagas  or  the  Italian  novelle;  the  deeds  of  young  David,  the  Trojan  war, 
the  Labors  of  Hercules  or  the  adventures  of  ^Eneas,  the  story  of  Esther,  of  Luc- 
rezia,  Judith,  Virginia,  Penelope,  Griselda,  and  so  on,  including  allegorical  com- 
positions with  love  and  truth  as  themes.  Occasionally  also  there  were  representa- 
tions of  the  time,  such  as  battles,  hunts,  tournaments,  festivals  of  all  kinds,  and 
other  themes  that  expressed  the  sentiment  of  young  married  couples  (111.  1). 
This  truly  monumental  piece  of  furniture,  besides  being  a  favorite  wedding 
present  among  the  great  families  of  the  Quattrocento,  held  a  prominent  place 
set  up  against  the  walls  of  the  room,  and  was  sometimes  raised  on  detached,  del- 
icately executed  supports,  which  at  the  same  time  protected  it.  Unfortunately, 
hardly  one  of  these  most  valuable  chests  has  been  preserved  intact,  for  the  paint- 
ings have  been  taken  out,  they  being  the  only  parts  that  were  valued,  and  that 
the  galleries  wished  to  exhibit;  the  rest  was  regarded  as  worthless.  Such  a 
chest,  without  doubt,  was  the  stately  Strozzi  cassone,  which  was  completed  for 
the  wedding  of  a  Strozzi  with  a  Medici  in  the  year  1513.  It  is  now  in  the  Berlin 
Kunstgewerbe-Museum.  The  painted  front  has  been  taken  out  and  replaced  by 
an  older  intarsia  picture  (111.  10).  The  same  is  true  ol  various  similar  large 
chests,  the  form  and  decoration  of  which  permit  us  to  infer  an  embellishment  of 
painted  sides.  The  majority  of  the  painted  chests  were,  however,  adorned  by 
the  merry  representations  of  the  chest  painter  or  with  ornamental  decoration, 
mostly  of  coats-of-arms  and  emblems  that  were  simply  and  largely  handled, 
with  strong  tints  on  a  colored  background. 

On  the  older  chests  of  this  kind,  the  inlaid  as  well  as  the  painted  ones,  the 
carving  was  mostly  on  the  strongly  accented  corners  and  on  the  mountings,  in 
the  form  of  modest  ornament,  confined  to  the  egg  and  dart,  the  heart  leaf,  and 
the  like.  The  decoration  of  chests  through  rich  pictorial  carving  is  found 
•C  first  in  the  time  of  the  High  Renaissance.  As  thereby  the  beauty  of  the  woods 
as  such,  and  the  artistic  work  of  the  carvers,  gained  appreciation,  coloring, 
through  painting,  intarsia,  etc.,  was  abandoned.     Through  strong  profile  work, 

*  high  relief,  and  lively  projection  the  artists  achieved  in  this  time  as  rich  and 
varied  an  effect  as  their  predecessors  had  through  color.     At  the  corners  we 

*  find  vigorously  formed  masks,  armorial  bearings,  putti,  prisoners  (borrowed 
from  Roman  triumphs),  or  Sphinxes  arising  from  rich  plant  ornament  which 
adorned  the  front,  while  in  the  middle,  as  a  rule,  was  a  cartouche  with  armorial 
bearings  or  emblems.  The  cover  is  of  diminished  size  on  the  top  and  has  rich  pro- 
file work  and  carving  (111.  12).  The  front  is  variously  decorated  in  high  relief 
with  representations  from  Roman  history  or  ancient  mythology,  that  are  placed 

10 


right  and  left  of  the  vigorous  armorial  bearings  in  the  middle.  The  most  sump- 
tuous pieces  of  this  kind  seem  to  have  been  made  for  Roman  families  by  Flor- 
entine workmen;  for  this  reason  we  shall  come  back  to  them  in  the  discussion 
of  Roman   furniture   (compare  page  44  and  111.  125  &    126). 

With  these  luxurious  and  decorative  pieces  came  very  numerous  simple  low 
chests  which  being  mostly  adapted  for  seats  have  flat  tops.  The  front  panel, 
smooth  or  enriched  with  carving  in  moderate  relief,  is  framed  in  with  very  fine 
and  effective  ornament,  while  at  each  end  are  side  pieces  decorated  with  small 
plaster  forms  or  divided  into  several  equal  parts  (111.  13  and  14). 

The  ornament  on  these  different  types  of  oassoni  of  the  High  Renaissance 
is  often  in  purr  gilded — "lighted  up  with  gold",  lumeggiato  in  oro — as  the  Ital- 
ians aptly  describe  it.  For  this  purpose  the  gold  was  as  a  rule  toned,  and  the 
wood  also,  instead  of  being  left  in  its  natural  color,  was  covered  with  a  brown 
tone  akin  to  that  of  wood,  by  saturating  it  with  a  mixture  of  transparent  or 
opaque  color  with  wax.  By  this  means  the  gold  was  made  to  combine  well  with 
the  wood  and  the  wood  with  the  separate  colors  or  paintings,  where  such,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  High  Renaissance  were  yet  found  on  the  chests;  by  this  means 
too,  the  pieces  of  furniture  were  made  to  harmonize  in  a  delightful  way  with 
each  other  and  with  the  color  of  the  walls  and  the  hangings  of  the  room.  Un- 
fortunately this  tone,  that  through  age  has  often  acquired  depth  and  a  pictur- 
esque effect,  has  been  lost  through  washing,  waxing  and  oiling,  due  to  lack  of 
taste  and  the  failure  in  our  time  to  comprehend  the  artistic  intent  of  the  old 
masters. 

At  the  same  time  with  the  cassone  came  the  cassetta,  a  characteristic  house- 
hold piece  from  Tuscany.  Gold,  jewels,  caps,  fine  pieces  of  linen,  and  the  like, 
were  in  the  fourteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  centuries  kept  in 
round  or  oval  boxes,  decorated  in  plaster,  or  with  paintings,  not  seldom  by  the 
most  noted  artists,  as  some  examples  of  great  beauty  (preserved  in  the  South 
Kensington  Museum,  in  the  Figdor  collection  in  Vienna,  in  the  Berliner  Kunst- 
Gewerbe-Museum,  etc.;  bear  witness.  Special  favorites  were  the  caskets  decor- 
ated in  pastiglia,  of  simple  coffer  form  with  rich  compositions  of  figures  in  re- 
lief that  were  modelled  in  yellow-grey  plaster  (pasto  da  riso).  These  are  done 
on  a  gilded  ground  and  kept  in  their  own  color,  the  ornament  being  lightly  gild- 
ed;  they  portray  triumphs,  ancient  myths,  scenes  from  ancient  history,  or  alle- 
gorical motives.  One  of  the  richest  and  finest  of  these  caskets,  that  in  the  Ber- 
liner Kunst  Gewerbe-Museum,  is  shown  in  illustration  17.  These  plaster  caskets, 
seem  mostly  to  have  been  made  in  Florence  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries. 

Such  caskets  and  boxes  no  longer  satisfied  the  growing  demands,  principal- 
ly because  their  small  size  and  lightness  made  them  particularly  liable  to  tjheft; 
from  them  were  evolved  caskets  in  form  and  decoration  very  much  like  the 
larger  chests.  At  first  they  were  inlaid  with  colored  woods  or  covered  with 
plaster  ornaments  and  gilded.  In  Florence  as  well  as  in  Siena  from  the  end  of 
the  Quattrocento  they  were  carved  in  walnut  in  the  same  way  as  wc.c  the  larger 
chests,  and  were  lightly  toned  and  partly  gilded   (111.   15).    To  some  extent  in 


keeping  with  them,  the  carving  is  generally  modest;  for  that  reason  the  fineness 
of  the  profile  work  and  the  finish,  as  well  as  the  proportions,  are  noticeable. 
Of  the  same  fineness  of  proportion  and  ornament  is  a  simple  casket  of  about 
1500  in  the  Berliner  Kunst  Gewerbe-Museum  that  yet  shows  the  old  toning.  A 
similar  one  is  found  among  the  decorative  pieces  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-Mus- 
cum  (111.  16).  Richer  but  already  somewhat  coarser  in  execution  are  the  cas- 
kets of  a  little  later  origin,  the  sides  of  which  are  inlaid  with  rare  antique 
marbles.  The  number  of  cassette  of  this  kind  preserved  would  indicate  that 
they  were  used  in  all  the  better  houses  in  Tuscany. 

Because  of  the  separation  of  the  chest  from  the  bench  the  latter  were  not 
superflous,  especially  since  the  chests  as  seats  were  numerous  only  in  later 
times.  The  wall  bench  held  its  place  in  many  rooms,  especially  in  the  vestibules 
of  the  Florentine  houses,  even  during  the  Renaissance.     We  also  occasionally 

•  find,  as  in  the  Palazzo  Strozzi,  even  the  plinths  of  the  houses  used  as  benches 
for  the  hospitable  reception  of  the  household  attendants  and  the  common  peo- 
ple. The  wall  bench  was  often  ornamented  richly;  the  legs  then  terminated  in 
lion  feet,  and  :he  high  back,  which  served  at  the  same  time  as  a  wainscot,  was 
decorated  more  or  less  with  rich  designs  in  intarsia,  similar  to  that  of  the 
choir  stalls  in  the  churches,  though  in  a  simpler  style.  After  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury we  meet  also  the  movable  bench,  detached  from  the  wall.  This  as  a  rule 
is  smaller  and  without  a  back,  its  lid-like  seat  being  always  movable  so  that 
the  inside  mav  be  used  as  a  chest.  The  sides  are  curved  inward  as  a  protection 
against  the  feet,  for  the  reception  of  which  a  small  tread-board  is  placed  below 
in  tront  of  the  bench.  The  decoration  of  such  benches,  when  they  were  made 
for  a  sumptuous  setting,  is  of  simple  intarsia  ornament  or  decorative  painting, 
in  later  times  confined  to  strongly  carved  but  flat  ornament,  as  the  illustration 
of  a  pair  of  such  little  benches  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-Museum  in  Berlin  shows 
(111.  18,  19  and  20). 

In  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  or  soon  after,  yet  another  character- 
istic piece  was  evolved  from  the  wall  bench,  which  the  Italians  appropriately 
term  cassapanca.  It  was  first  used  as  a  seat,  but  afterward  served  as  a  chest. 
This  piece  also,  the  ancestor  of  our  sofa,  is  specifically  Florentine  and  did  not  go 

.  beyond  Florence  and  its  neighborhood,  where  it  was  in  fashion  for  about  a 
hundred  years.  In  its  strong,  straight,  chest  form,  with  its  low  sides,  it  con- 
veys to  an  unusual  degree  an  impression  of  the  serious,  vigorous,  and  monumen- 
tal character  of  the  Florentine  Renaissance  furniture.  On  a  projecting  foot- 
board the  substructure  stands  in  true  chest  form,  and  like  the  chests  was  used 
to  hold  clothing,  linen  and  the  like;  on  this  lower  piece  (usually  closing  flat  on 
the  top)  stand  the  back  and  sides.  In  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  centuries  the  cassapanca  was  almost  entirely  flat  and  the  simple  orna- 
mentation generally  of  intarsia.  The  Kaiser  Friedrich-Museum  in  Berlin  has  an 
excellent  piece  of  the  kind  and  there  are  several  still  older  ones  in  the  Villa  Tor- 
re del  Gallo  (Bardini)  outside  Florence,  and  in  the  Palazzo  Davanzati  (111.  21). 
In  the  sixteenth  century  the  forms  had  more  movement,  the  profile  work  was 
stronger,  while  the  ornamentation  consisted  of  carving,  and  masks  and  armorial 

12 


bearings  were  disposed  in  suitable  places.  These  pieces  became  really  avail- 
able for  seating  only  through  the  use  of  large  cushions  on  the  seat  and  sides 
as  well  as  at  the  back.  Because  of  their  large  and  massive  construction  these  un- 
usually durable  pieces  of  furniture  have  been  preserved  in  the  palaces  and  villas 
of  the  principal  Florentine  families  in  considerable  numbers;  they  have,  how- 
ever, recently,  almost  without  exception,  gone  into  the  museums  and  private 
collections,  where  the  armorial  bearings  of  the  Medici,  Antinori,  Strozzi,  and 
others,  are  to  be  found  on  them,  betraying  their  origin.  We  give  some  illustra- 
tions of  unusually  noble  or  sumptuous  pieces  as  they  are  found  in  the  Museo 
Nazionale  in  Florence,  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  in  London,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  collections  of  Paris,  Berlin  and  other  places  (111.  21-25).  A  cas- 
sapanca  of  the  kind,  of  unusual  simplicity  and  modest  bulk,  with  an  exception- 
ally high  back,  is  found  in  the  collection  of  Baron  Heinrich  von  Tucher,  in  Nu- 
remberg; another  is  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Otto  Lanz,  in  Amsterdam. 

What  the  cassapanca  was  in  the  common  room,  the  throne,  trono,  was  in 
the  state  drawing-room  of  the  palaces  belonging  to  the  foremost  Florentine 
families.  From  a  sumptuous  raised  throne  the  high-born  married  couple  re-' 
ceived  their  guests  in  Republican  Florence.  The  throne  of  the  princely  fam- 
ilies of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  in  the  Renaissance,  consisted  of  an  ample  chair  or  a 
bench  with  some  gorgeous  material  thrown  over  it,  behind  which  a  baldachino 
rose.  By  the  annexation  of  the  Bishop's  Chair  in  the  churches,  Florence  found 
a  fitting  model  for  her  rich  patricians:  a  bench  approached  by  two  steps,  hav- 
ing a  high  back  finished  with  a  strong  moulding.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Cin- 
quecento  this  moulding  occasionally  projected  far  forward  and  then  rested  on 
slender  turned  and  carved  pillars  that  were  supported  on  the  low  side  pieces. 

Of  the  few  thrones  of  this  kind  that  have  been  preserved,  the  age  is  shown 
in  the  inlaid  ornament  of  the  modest  profile  work,  such  as  that  of  the  throne 
from  the  Filippo  Strozzi  palace  in  Florence,  now  in  the  possession  of  Baron 
Moritz  Rothschild  of  Paris  (111.  27)  ;  the  later  ones  of  the  first  three  decades  of 
the  Cinquecento  have  besides  a  certain  amount  of  carving  of  the  finest  concep- 
tion and  execution,  as  we  are  made  to  realize  in  the  famous  fresco — the  Birth 
of  John— in  the  vestibule  of  the  Annunziata  at  Florence  (111.  26).  The  throne  of 
the  young  Giuliano  dei  Medici,  whose  statue  is  preserved  in  the  Medici  Chapel, 
is  one  of  this  kind,  of  very  tasteful  construction.  From  the  Nuti  family,  into 
whose  possession  it  had  come  through  inheritance,  it  fell  to  Prince  Demidoff, 
who  allowed  it  to  be  defaced  by  retouching  and  the  introduction  of  modern 
intarsia  (111.  28). 

We  have  very  little  information  concerning  the  form  and  development,  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  Renaissance,  of  the  most  important  furniture  used  for 
seating — the  chair.  Since,  especially  among  the  originals  from  the  fifteenth 
century,  comparatively  few  with  an  authentic  history  have  been  preserved,  we 
are  practically  dependent  upon  illustrations,  paintings  and  embroidery  of  the 
time,  which  in  this  matter  are  incomplete  and  not  always  trustworthy.  The 
chairs  of  earlier  times  are  generally  simple;  the  seat  is  apt  to  be  low  and  made 
of  braided  straw.    The  forms  that  since  the  beginning  of  the  Cinquecento  have 

13 


been  m(5st  clearly  defined:  the  stool,  the  straight  chair  without  arms,  and  the 
armchair,  we  find,  to  be  sure,  in  the  Quattrocento,  but  the  rich  artistic  confor- 
mation belongs  to  the  before  mentioned  time. 

The  only  known  Florentine  stool,  sgabello,  with  rich  decoration  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  now  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Figdor,  in  Vienna  (111.  29  and  30). 
comes  from  the  Palazzo  Strozzi.  It  is  ornamented  above  on  both  sides  of  the  back, 
with  armorial  bearings  that  in  form  and  get  up  correspond  exactly  with  the 
arms  on  the  reverse  of  the  Filippo  Strozzi  medal;  that  also  had  its  origin  in 
1480.  Yet  this  is,  particularly  in  its  form,  with  its  small  high  back,  a  very  orig- 
inal piece;  the  decoration  is  confined  almost  entirely  to  armorial  bearings  in 
low  relief  as  an  upper  finish  to  the  back.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  sgabello 
was  hardly  less  richly  decorated  than  the  chest,  especially  in  Florence,  where 
this  decoration  was  again  carried  out  in  carving,  the  effect  of  which  they  knew 
how  occasionally  to  heighten  by  gilding  applied  to  certain  parts.  Excepting  on 
•  the  seat  itself  and  the  inside  of  the  boards,  the  whole  sgabello  was  as  a  rule 
very  elaborately  carved;  the  decoration  generally  characterized  well  the  re- 
spective parts  in  their  particular  function.  A  dozen  of  these  sgabelli  close  to- 
gether, as,  for  example,  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  which  has  a  quan- 
tity of  the  most  beautiful  ones  in  perfect  condition,  have  the  effect  of  being  too 
sumptuous,  overladen;  but  in  the  large  rooms  of  the  Tuscan  palace,  that  were  ac- 
cording to  our  ideas  almost  empty,  as  they  were  ranged  along  the  sides  and 
grouped  about  the  large  table,  the  effect  was  well  calculated  and  fine.  We  give  a 
few  characteristic  examples  of  the  earlier  sgabello  as  well  as  the  richly  carved 
ones  of  a  later  time,  particularly  those  privately  owned  in  Paris,  where  there  is 
a  greater  number  of  them  (111.  31  to  35). 

We  find  the  sgabello  often  without  a  back,  as  a  hocker,  sometimes  four 
sided  and  quite  like  the  sgabello  just  described  in  construction  and  decoration, 
sometimes  three  sided,  which  was  the  favorite  form  in  Gothic  times.  The 
hocker  is  generally  somewhat  lower  than  the  typical  sgabello. 

The  Renaissance  chair  was  evolved  from  the  ancient  folding  stool.  The 
folding  chair  made  wholly  of  staves  joined  together,  with  a  movable  seat  and  a 
removable  back,  called  in  Italy  the  Savonarola  chair,  in  modern  German  cabinet 
work  designated  with  equal  impropriety  the  Luther  chair,  had  its  artistic  form 
also  in  the  fifteenth  century.  In  Florence,  however,  this  X  chair  in  its  simple 
strong  framework  (generally  of  iron  with  bronze  balls,  compare  111.  36)  was 
as  a  rule  either  elaborately  carved  or  bedecked  with  rich  tapestries,  at  least  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  among  sumptuous  surroundings;  throughout  that  time  it 
was  fitted  up  in  textiles,  braids,  fringes,  tassels,  gilded  bronze  nails  and  balls 
above  on  the  back,  in  that  luxurious  yet  tasteful  manner,  of  which  our  modern 
upholstery  art  shows  no  conception.  While  the  sgabello  was  used  particularly 
<as  a  dining  chair,  the  chair  described  was  designed  as  a  resting  place  as  well 
as  a  work  chair.  In  a  cassone  picture  of  about  1480  a  bronze  chair  of  this  form 
appears,  which  was  for  the  time  made  to  serve  as  a  dining  chair.  Chairs  inlaid 
with  ivory  "alia  Cerlosina",  that  were  made  principally  in  Lombardy,  and 
folding  chairs  decorated  with  carving  and  indentations,  from  Venetia  and  the 

14 


Marches,  have  been  preserved  in  considerable  numbers.  An  armchair  of  the 
kind,  in  X  form,  of  Florentine  origin,  shows  comparatively  little  of  its  old 
equipment  (111.  37  and  37a),  while  many  are  found  in  the  French  and  English 
collections  in  new  mounting  with  old  textiles  and  fringe.  A  characteristic  ex- 
ample of  the  ordinary  Florentine  folding  chair  of  an  earlier  time  is  given  in  our 
illustrations  (38  and  39). 

Another  kind  of  chair,  the  wall  chair — as  one  might  call  it — since  like  the 
cassapanca  it  was  as  a  rule  assigned  a  place  at  the  side  of  the  room,  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  typical  chair  only  by  its  arms,  its  high  back  and  large  cir- 
cumference, with  the  greater  simplicity  and  the  monumental  form  which  this 
entailed.  In  Florence,  where  we  know  it  first  in  the  Renaissance,  it  is  generally 
covered  sumptuously  in  textiles,  most  often  red  velvet,  more  rarely  leather,  and 
it  is  enriched  with  effective  passamenterie  work.  Almost  all  of  the  back  and  the 
seat,  which,  when  the  cross  piece  is  lacking,  reaches  almost  to  the  middle  of  the 
framework,  is  covered  with  some  textile.  Cross  pieces,  backs,  etc.,  are  as  a 
rule  uncovered,  strong,  straight,  and  almost  plain.  A  good  idea  of  the  distinct- 
ive appearance  of  these  chairs  is  given  in  the  illustrations  (40  to  42).  They 
seem  indeed  to  us  today  somewhat  stiff  and  uncomfortable,  but  one  must  not 
forget  that  they  were  made  more  comfortable  by  a  large  cushion  thrown  onto 
the  seat. 

The  typical  chair,  the  sedia,  retained  its  simple  form  and  equipment  up  to 
the  time  of  the  High  Renaissance.  As  a  rule  the  seat  is  of  braided  straw  (gen- . 
erally  with  a  cushion  on  it  when  used  in  the  houses,  111.  44),  in  the  palace  it  was 
covered  with  leather  or  velvet.  In  the  High  Renaissance  the  back,  with  the  intro- 
duction of  a  footboard,  was  ornamented  by  delicately  turned  rods  and  carv- 
ing on  the  cross  pieces.  The  low  chair  in  our  illustration,  given  again  as  an 
example  (111.  43),  shows  how  comformity  to  purpose,  good  proportion  and  ef- 
fective ornamentation  were  happily  preserved,  even  in  a  sumptuous  and  orig- 
inal expression.  It  has  also  a  particular  interest  in  that  it  is  not  only  gilded 
here  and  there  but  in  part  painted.  In  this  also,  as  the  color  is  harmonized  with 
the  deep  toned  walnut  and  with  the  gold,  the  truly  artistic  spirit  of  the  time 
is  shown. 

The  rooms  of  one  of  our  important  modern  houses,  even  when  they  are  not  ■ 
of  such  extraordinary  size,  are  much  like  the  principal  room  in  a  Florentine 
palace  if  one  could  think  of  it  as  arranged  for  living,  with  a  number  of  "etab- 
lissements"  of  large  and  small  tables  in  the  middle  of  the  room  or  in  the  cor- 
ners and  around  the  walls.  The  library  in  a  modern  English  house,  especially 
the  country  house,  and  the  drawing-room  of  the  American  millionaire,  alone 
come  within  any  degree  of  relationship  with  the  rooms  of  an  Italian  palace, 
their  arrangement  after  that  manner  making  of  them  the  choicest  rooms.  Many 
of  the  great  Halls  are  similarly  fitted  up.  The  Italians  of  the  Renaissance,  even 
in  the  later  time,  when  they  had  grown  accustomed  to  luxury,  were  not  con- 
scious of  such  requirements.  For  them,  before  everything  the  room  must  be 
large,  for  the  reception  of  the  assembled  guests;  no  emphasis  was  then  laid 
on  "comfort."     As  a  rule  we  find  in  the  Florentine  drawing-room  at  most  a 

15 


table,  four  cornered,  of  an  oblong  shape,  hardly  as  wide  as  our  modern  tables 
but  of  noticeable,  even  unusual,  length,  generally  between  two  and  four  meters 
long.  From  its  shape  and  size  one  might  conclude  that  this  table  was  particu- 
larly designed  as  a  dining-table;  this  seems,  however,  not  to  have  been  the  case 
in  general.  Almost  all  these  tables  are  too  high  to  use  for  dining;  they  are  also 
mostly  too  narrow  for  a  dining-table  (usually  they  are  hardly  a  meter  in 
breadth).  For  this  purpose,  judging  by  paintings  and  engravings,  within  the 
family  a  plain  table  was  used,  but  for  great  banquets  strong  planks  laid  over 
trestles  served.  These  were  covered  by  the  large,  splendid,  linen  table-cloth  that 
hung  down  almost  to  the  floor  and  lay  on  the  carpet.  They  were  also  occasional- 
ly decorated,  in  a  simple  way,  to  be  sure,  as  one  example  in  Bardini's  Villa  Torre 
del  Gallo  outside  Florence  witnesses.  It  came  from  the  Palazzo  Strozzi  and 
shows  the  arms  of  the  Strozzi  carved  and  framed  in  a  delicate  ornamentation. 
In  this  the  trestles  have  two  legs  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  only  one 
straight  leg.  This  simple  form  of  portable  table  was  used  far  into  the  sixteenth 
century  (111.  45). 

The  Florentine  room  table,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  had  a  monumental  form  that 
expressed  size.  It  rested  on  two  powerful  double  feet  after  an  antique  model; 
broad  richly  ornamented  plates  turned  vigorously  outward  on  each  side  into  a 
lion  foot  and  above,  under  the  flat  top,  were  generally  decorated  with  a  lion 
head  or  mask.  In  the  fifteenth  century  these  tables  (designed  oily  for  rooms 
on  the  ground  floor)  were  also  of  marble  (111.  46  from  the  Viiia  Mici.eiozzo),  in 
the  sixteenth  century  occasionally  of  bronze  and  marble.  When  they  are  of 
wood  they  are  rarely  without  the  cross-piece,  the  "traversa,"  on  account  of  the 
great  distance  between  the  legs,  and  a  support  is  generally  placed  in  the  space 
between  the  plates,  resting  directly  on  the  legs  (111.  52).  In  the  High  Renais- 
sance both,  like  the  feet  and  the  edge  of  the  lop,  are  richly  decorated.  When  the 
i  table  was  very  large  it  had  occasionally  a  third  leg  in  the  middle,  or  the  join- 
ing piece  between  the  legs  was  set  on  the  floor  instead  of  being  in  the  middle 
of  the  space  or  near  the  top,  in  which  case  it  rested  as  a  flat  slab  unchangeably 
on  the  floor,  furnishing  an  excellent  counterpoise  to  the  table  top.  A  large 
table,  now  privately  owned  by  an  American  (111.  53),  gives  a  particularly  fav- 
orable view  of  the  taste  and  the  architectural  spirit  of  the  Florentine  cabinet 
maker  of  the  Cinquecento,  under  the  influence  of  Michelangelo's  style  of  dec- 
oration. The  large  table,  more  than  five  meters  in  length,  in  the  Raphael- 
Tapetensaal  of  the  Berlin  Museum,  a  characteristic  example,  bears  witness  that 
here  also  the  natural  hue  of  the  wood  was  not  fully  appreciated,  as  it  was  cov- 
ered over  with  a  thin  reddish  color.  It  is  Venetian  work,  done  soon  after  the 
middle  of  the  Cinquecento. 

The  large  round  table  was  not  customarily  used  to  write  on;  the  writing 
table  had  from  the  early  Middle  Ages  its  individual  form,  and  as  a  rule  a 
special  room  also,  which  in  time  became  the  library.  This  form,  known  to  all 
through  miniatures  and  paintings,  especially  those  representing  the  Church 
Fathers,  is  that  of  the  writing-desk.  Many  of  them  had  compartments  that 
could  be  closed.  They  were  placed  on  the  sides  of  the  chairs  and  had  a  slanting 
surface  to  write  on.     In  the  sixteenth  century   this  piece  stood  by  itself  as  a 


small  light  writing-desk  in  inlaid  wood  or  covered  with  finely  ornamented 
leather  or  textile.  It  could  be  used  in  any  room  and  on  any  table  where  one 
might  wish  to  place  it  (compare  111.  130).  Of  these  small  top  desks  a  number, 
even  from  the  fifteenth  century,  are  preserved. 

With  increasing  requirements  small  tables  gradually  appeared  that 
were  designed  to  be  moved  about  in  a  room  when  necessary.  In  the  Quattro- 
cento these  tables,  of  which  only  a  few  are  of  assured  Florentine  origin,  were 
mostly  of  vigorous  form,  with  strong  round,  or  oftener  hexagonal  or  octagonal, 
tops  (many  with  drawers  in  them),  one  foot  in  the  shape  of  a  slender  vase,  with  * 
three  or  four  legs  in  the  form  of  dolphins  or  lion  feet,  and  the  like  (111.  47-51). 
In  the  Cinquecento  they  were  lighter  and  much  richer  in  their  decorations  (111. 
53).  It  is  astonishing  in  what  varied  and  tasteful  ways  they  were  fashioned  on 
the  same  ground  form,  how  effective  they  are  and  with  what  uniformity  legs  and 
tops  are  regularly  designed.  In  the  larger  forms  they  have  generally  a  light 
ioot-board  between  the  two  great  feet  (111.  54)  ;  toward  the  end  of  the  century 
these  came  into  more  common  use,  with  four  slender  legs,  not  bounci  together. 

The  true  wardrobe,  indispensible  in  the  sacristies  and  to  some  extent  also 
in  the  public  buildings,  developed  in  diverse  ways,  was  an  exception  in  the 
Italian  dwelling-house  of  the  Renaissance.  Instead  of  clothes  closets  and  linen 
closets  the  Italian  used  chests;  in  the  place  of  cases  for  books  and  household 
utensils  as  a  rule  he  made  use  of  a  cavity  in  the  wall  that  was  in  most  cases 
open  or  partitioned.  The  credenza  only,  is  for  the  Italian  the  favorite  piece.* 
Even  in  the  Early  Renaissance  it  held  its  characteristic  form  as  a  one-storied  ' 
broad  cupboard  with  several  doors.  It  was  of  medium  height,  which  made  it  • 
possible  to  use  the  top  as  a  sideboard.  The  credenza  held  this  form  almost 
without  change  until  the  Baroque  period;  the  effective  architectural  construc- 
tion, following  the  style  of  the  time,  is  brought  out  only  through  smooth  profile 
work,  and  ornament,  at  first  of  intarsia  alone,  later  of  carving  (111. 
56-59).  The  very  wide  credenze,  of  which  111.  55  shows  a  good  example,  seem 
to  have  found  employment  only  in  the  refectories.  They  have  several  double 
doors  and  are  curved  on  the  sides  in  a  tasteful  manner,  as  contemporary  chest 
pictures  show.  As  early  as  the  Quattrocento  they  had  the  same  form,  and  were 
then  embellished  with  intarsia  ornament. 

In  the  Cinquecento,  especially  in  Florence,  the  small  credenza  was  a  fav- 
orite. In  its  higher  form  it  resembles  a  low  cabinet;  it  has  one  door  or  a 
double  door  and  in  decoration  adheres  closely  to  the  large  credenze  (111.  64  and 
65).  In  the  art  trade  they  have  frequently  made  over  the  bedside  bench  of  the 
same  period  into  such  a  credenzina  by  combining  with  it  a  box  of  similar  shape, 
after  taking  away  the  kneeling  board. 

An  unusual  form  of  credenza  appeared  in  Tuscany  in  the  middle  of  the 
Cinquecento.  As  111.  66  shows,  this  piece  has  a  strong  projecting  set  of  drawers 
resting  on  protruding  supports  of  volute  form;  the  flat  top  is  embellished  with 
a  decoration  resembling  Roman  moulding,  with  triglyph  and  drop.  The  lower 
part  has  a  wide  double  door. 

The  small  credenza,  high  and  narrow,  prepared  the  way  for  the  cabinet, 

17 


which,  as  has  been  said,  was  not   widely  used  as  house   furniture  during   the 
Renaissance. 

Our  modern  commode  is  nearly  related  to  a  larger  piece  of  a  kind  that  is 
known  to  me  only  through  the  one  in  the  illustration  again  referred  to  (111. 
'Jl),  that  was  in  an  art  shop  in  Florence  years  ago.  Our  illustration  shows  the 
construction;  the  decoration  in  intarsia  is  made  up  of  simple  palmetto  friezes, 
the  drawing  of  which  permits  the  conclusion  that  it  had  its  origin  soon  after 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Its  character  is  true  Tuscan  even  when 
the  piece  perhaps  originated  in  Urbino  or  in  some  other  place  outside  Tuscany, 
for  the  artist  was  then  probably  one  of  the  many  Florentine  or  Sienese  crafts- 
men who  worked  away  from  their  homes. 

Our  modern  cabinet  is  similar  to  the  writing  cabinet.  This  had  its  rise  in 
the  course  of  the  Quattrocento,  as  facility  in  writing  became  universal.  It  was 
designed  partly  to  supply  the  need  for  something  in  which  to  preserve  letters 
and  other  papers,  as  well  as  to  hold  the  writing  utensils,  and  partly  that  all 
these  things  might  be  conveniently  at  hand.  The  form  of  this  old  Italian  writ- 
ing cabinet,  which  is  evidently  Florentine,  has  remained  practically  unchanged 
even  to  our  time.  Of  moderate  size,  almost  twice  as  high  as  long,  it  had  an 
upper  and  a  lower  part.  The  under  part  in  exceptional  cases  and  in  earlier 
times  was  of  table  form,  but  was  commonly  designed  as  a  cabinet  with  two 
doors.  On  it  rested  the  slightly  projecting  upper  part  which  was  of  about 
equal  height,  and  harbored  behind  a  folding  leaf,  or  plate,  the  numerous  little 
articles  for  facilitating  the  work  of  writing,  etc.  This  leaf  when  open  served 
as  a  writing  table.  The  earliest  pieces  of  the  kind,  known  to  me,  are  mostly 
decorated  with  rich  and  tasteful  intarsia;  in  the  High  Renaissance,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  cabinet  maker  had  quite  enough  to  do  to  satisfy  the  lust  for  carving 
on  the  writing  cabinet;  the  estimation  in  which  it  was  held  by  the  giver  of  the 
commission  corresponded.  They  easily  did  too  much  here,  even  of  what  was  good, 
as  in  that  singular,  and  at  one  time  very  much  prized,  variety  of  cabinet,  of 
deep-toned  and  very  effective  walnut,  with  pillar-like  groups  of  small  figures 
built  one  over  the  other  on  the  sides  of  the  cabinet,  and  with  similarly  treated 
moulding  decorated  with  figures  (111.  61).  Even  when  the  best  of  the  cabinets, 
in  construction  and  tone,  and  in  their  proportions  and  profile,  have  a  fine  strong 
effect,  in  such  productions  the  understanding  the  good  Florentine  cabinet  mak- 
ers had  of  how  to  treat  the  body,  does  not  as  a  rule  come  out.  My  recollection 
of  a  pair  of  such  writing  cabinets  in  the  Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburg  (from  the 
Basilewski  collection)  is  that  they  were  unusually  beautiful.  The  embellish- 
ment, although  at  times  too  rich  in  ornament,  deserves  a  first  place  among  these 
rigure  decorations   (111.  60). 

From  paintings  and  wood-engravings  we  see  that  the  writing  table  as  a 
rule  had  a  small  slanting  top  piece  that  in  many  cases  was  removable.  In  con- 
struction, which  is  determined  by  its  object,  it  shows  hardly  any  change  during 
the  entire  Renaissance;  in  the  fifteenth  century  it  was  generally  ornamented 
with  intarsia,  but  in  the  beginning  of  the  High  Renaissance  we  find  with  that, 
or   instead    of   it,    decoration    through   carving.      One    of    the    rarely   preserved 

18 


pieces,  in  the  possession  of  Otto  Beit  in  London  (compare  111.  130),  is  adorned 
on  the  sides  with  Nereids  in  high  relief,  that  betray  the  hand  of  the  skilful 
Florentine  wood  carvers  who  in  1520  produced  the  richly  carved  chests. 

The  high  two-piece  cabinet  seems  to  have  come  more  especially  from  up- 
per Italy,  where  it  really  was  adopted  from  the  north.  The  few  examples  yet 
existing  of  the  Gothic  cabinet  show  here  a  close  relationship  with  contempor- 
ary Tyrol  furniture.  Yet  more  similar  are  the  few  cabinets  of  the  High  Renais- 
sance that  have  come  down  to  us  (111.  62  and  63).  The  higher  upper  part  is 
built  upon  a  low  under  section  ;  both  have  double  doors  and  the  characteristic 
architectural  members  and  ornaments  of  the  Cinquecento.  The  two  pieces 
illustrated  here  come  from  a  Florentine  art  shop,  but  they  originated  in  Brescia. 

A  one-storied  high  cabinet  now  in  the  Krefeld  K.  Wilhelm-Museum,  the 
rich  decoration  indicating  a  period  shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  Cinquecento, 
corresponds  somewhat  with  out  modern  wardrobe.  But  neither  this  nor  the 
two  section  caoinet  seems  really  to  have  been  adopted  in  Italy.  They  put  away 
their  clothing  in  the  chests,  and  for  the  food,  they  did  not  use  the  cupboard, 
as  in  the  North,  but  the  credenza  instead. 

The  bookcase,  the  libreria,  though  also  rare,  appears  occasionally  in  the  • 
Florentine  dwelling-house.  Usually  it  had,  as  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  several  partitions,  after  the  fashion  of  the  wall  cupboard.  Such  a 
bookcase,  about  six  meters  in  width,  divided  into  several  sections,  which  makes 
it  easy  to  move  about,  is  owned  by  Prince  Johann  Liechtenstein,  in  Eisgrub 
(111.  67).  It  is  of  very  good  proportion  and  simply  but  tastefully  decorated  in 
High  Renaissance  forms  that  indicate  a  period  about  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  A  small  example  of  this  style  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-Muscum  . 
in  Berlin  has,  like  the  Liechtenstein  bookcase,  the  lower  part  closed  with  two 
doors,  the  upper  part  open,  with  a  wire  screen  over  it;  it  is  delicately  orna- 
mented and  gilded  here  and  there.  How  rich  and  splendid  these  bookcases 
occasionally  were  in  the  Quatrocento  is  proved  by  the  information  we  have  that 
Lionello  d'Este  in  1434  purchased,  on  account  of  its  artistic  form,  a  libreria 
that  had  been  made  for  Paolo  Giunigi,  in  Lucca,  twenty  years  earlier. 

Among  the  occasional  furniture  of  the  Florentine  room  there  were  some 
small  pieces,  notably  pedestals  for  busts,  the  wall  mirror,  and  the  clothes 
rack.  They  came  out  first,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  busts  of  the  Quattrocento,  usually  cut  off  smooth  under  the 
shoulders  or  under  the  bust,  had  their  place  on  the  moulding  of  the  chimney  or 
the  doors.  In  the  High  Renaissance  first,  following  Roman  examples,  they 
cut  the  bust  only  once,  and  placed  it  on  a  small  pedestal  which,  on  a  higher 
stand,  was  put  in  the  particular  place  in  the  room  assigned  to  it.  These  stands, 
sgabelloni,  were  in  the  sixteenth  century  mostly  carved  out  of  wood  and  were 
formed  of  two  narrow  slanting  boards,  slightly  diminishing  at  the  top,  that 
terminated  below  in  lion  feet.  They  are  effectively  decorated  in  more  or  less 
low  relief  and  are  held  together  by  a  flat  shelf-like  top.  In  all  but  the  upper 
section  it  follows  almost  exactly  the  form  of  the  sgabello,  from  which  it  has  bor- 
rowed the  name.    Our  illustrations  (68-71)  present  a  pair  of  effective  examples 

19 


of  such  Florentine  sgabelloni  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century;  the 
one  with  simple  vigorous  carving  and  deep  in  tone,  the  other  decorated  richly 
in  low  relief  and  lighter  in  tone,  being  gilded  here  and  there.  In  the  Cinque- 
cento,  a  vigorously  carved  mask  formerly  constituted  the  middle  piece  of  the 
decoration  (111.  71).  More  rare  are  the  painted  stands,  of  which  111.  70  shows 
a  striking  example,  that  originated  in  Rome,  but  is  now  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich- 
Museum. 

The  hand-glass,  the  most  indispensible  article  for  the  satisfaction  of  human 
vanity,  and  for  that  reason  made  by  the  oldest  of  civilized  peoples,  often  richly 
and  artistically  worked  out,  was  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  a  favorite 
piece.  The  wall-mirror,  on  the  other  hand,  like  the  rarer  stand-mirror  (an 
extraordinarily  beautiful  example  of  which,  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum, 
we  return  to:  111.  76),  seems  to  have  appeared  first  toward  the  end  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  polished  metal  could,  however,  only  be  used  in  small  pieces, 
and  after  the  invention  of  the  glass  this  also  had  in  the  beginning  a  very 
small  surface,  so  that  both  at  a  certain  distance  and  in  a  light  not  particularly 
strong,  are  undistinguishable,  differing  little  from  each  other.  The  convex 
glass  mirror,  that  in  the  North  made  its  appearance  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  known  to  all  lovers  of  art,  through  Jan  van  Eyck's  double 
portrait  of  Giovanni  Arnolfini  ar.d  his  wife,  was  more  suited  to  compress- 
ing into  a  small  compass  a  picturesque  view  of  the  room  than  it  was  to  reflect 
human  features;  it  was  quite  unsuitable  for  use  in  the  toilet. 
•  In  Italy,  so  far  as  I  know,  wall-mirrors  came  in  during  the  fifteenth 
century  with  the  improvement  of  the  setting  and  polish  of  the  larger  plates, 
in  Florence  and  Venice  they  appeared  almost  simultaneously.  The  frames  of 
the  Florentine  mirrors,  very  nearly  related  to  the  picture  frames  and  like  them 
in  the  richness  and  tastefulness  of  their  composition,  as  in  their  perfection  of 
style,  are  yet  characteristically  worked  out.  The  frame  enclosing  the  valuable 
picture  is  only  designed  to  close  it  up  and  at  the  same  time  to  mount  it;  it  was 
proportionately  small  in  the  Renaissance,  especially  in  Florence.  The  plate  of 
the  mirror,  generally  small  (about  20-30  centimeters  in  height,  the  width  being 
a  little  less)  and  not  without  its  own  charm,  is  also  dazzling.  It  was  on  that 
account  usually  hidden  by  a  painted  sliding  cover;  so  the  mirror  gets  its  artist- 
ic worth  principally  from  the  frame,  that  is  proportionately  large  and  as  richly 
decorated  as  possible.  How  costly  and  how  valued  was  the  possession  of  the 
mirror  at  this  time  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  no  other  piece  of  furniture  is 
so  uniformly  fine  in  its  proportions,  so  delicate  in  its  profile  work,  so  choice 
and  so  finished  in  the  drawing  and  carrying  out  of  the  ornamentation,  as  the 
mirror  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

A  considerable  number  of  these  mirrors,  some  excellent  specimens  of  the 
kind,  are  found  in  the  collections  of  Paris  and  in  single  examples  in  the  mus- 
eums, notably  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum.  Of  these  illustrated  here, 
one  (111.  74)  is  characterized  as  a  work  dating  from  the  beginning  of  the  High 
Renaissance.  It  shows,  not  only  in  the  style,  with  interchanging  high  and  low 
relief  and  strong  and  weak  ornament,  but  in   the  classic  working  out  of  the 

20 


same,  that  the  wood-carvers,  in  their  art  hardly  inferior  to  the  contemporary 
sculptors,  constructed  such  pieces.  The  unusual  and  at  times  peculiar  motives, 
quite  freely  worked  out,  that  slip  into  the  decoration  of  the  top,  especially  when 
it  is  light  and  hence  particularly  rich,  betray  the  same  imagination  and  senti- 
ment that  was  disclosed  in  the  earliest  work  of  the  pioneer  masters  in  the  plas- 
tic art  of  the  High  Renaissance,  pre-eminent  among  them,  Andrea  Sansovino. 
All  the  coiled  serpent  forms,  and  naked  putti  whose  limbs  come  out  of  flaming 
vases  and  whose  hands  hold  flames,  every  upright  shield,  every  serpent  or  fish 
form  with  human  masks,  string  course  of  rolled  up  volutes,  and  similar  inven- 
tions, that  followed  a  preference  for  heavy  allegorical  representations  under 
the  influence  of  the  discovery  at  that  time  of  ancient  Grotesques  in  Rome — all 
these,  in  a  close  resemblance,  we  find  in  Andrea  Sansovino's  altar  niche  in  S. 
Spirito  in  Florence,  in  his  monuments  in  S.  Maria  del  Popolo,  Aracu'li,  and 
other  places.  They  present  a  singular  mixture  of  immature,  fantastic  motives 
in  exaggerated,  unconventional  forms  of  decoration,  into  which  a  wild  Baroque 
element  seems  to  slip;  but  through  the  predominance  of  beautiful,  effective 
contours,  and  through  the  modest  subjection  of  the  heterogeneous  details,  in 
the  whole  effect  they  mostly  escape  the  eye.  It  is  a  characteristic  sign  of  the 
soundness  of  the  craft  of  the  artistic  element  at  this  time  that  these  hetero- 
geneous motives  were  quickly  rejected  or  only  used  in  a  conventionalized  form. 

The  vigorous,  over-laden  forms  of  that  part  of  the  Renaissance  before  con- 
sidered, under  the  influence  of  Michelangelo,  appeared  in  the  small  wall-mirrors 
with  as  advantageous  an  effect  as  those  of  an  earlier  time,  and  become,  through 
the  fine  toned  color  of  the  wood,  the  gilding  of  the  higher  parts  and  the  deep 
bronze  colored  tone  due  to  time,  so  increased  in  importance  that  is  compre- 
hensible that  these  pieces  have  for  decades  been  bought  up  with  great  partiality 
by  the  most  difficult  and  the  richest  of  collectors.  The  mirror  in  our  illustra- 
tion, formerly  in  the  possession  of  the  Kaiserin  Friedrich  (111.  75),  is  a  good 
example;  it  still  has  its  old  cover  in  the  form  of  a  picture  in  the  style  of  Vasari. 
On  a  similar  simple  mirror  (111.  73)  this  cover  is  of  wood  with  intarsia. 

The  chimney-piece  held  its  important  place  during  the  Renaissance  and  • 
consequently  often  reached  in  the  palaces  and  villas  a  rich  and  artistic  perfec- 
tion; its  fitting  up,  however,  remained,  in  Florence,  very  simple.  While  in 
Venice  the  andirons  (alari)  were  rich  constructions  of  bronze  terminating  in  a 
figure,  those  of  Florence,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  were  commonly  of  iron  and 
comparatively  simple  in  form.  Yet  they  are  beautiful  in  construction  and  often 
of  a  very  fine  finish  in  a  restrained  style,  as  are  also  the  tongs,  shovels  and 
other  fireplace  fittings,  that  are  handled  in  the  same  way.  Unusual  luxury  in* 
carving  was  expended  on  the  bellows,  the  decoration  following  very  closely  the 
character  of  the  carved  chests  in  the  style  of  the  younger  San  Gallo,  of  the 
Tassi,  of  Baccio  d'Agnolo,  and  others.  Especially  beautiful  examples  are  shown 
in  the  collection  of  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  (111.  77  and  79). 

The  clothes  rack,  attaceapanno,  or  capellinaro,  was  also  very  artistically 
set  up  by  the  Florentines.  Many  remain  from  the  sixteenth  century;  from  the 
fifteenth   century   I   know   only   one,   that  was   formerly   in   the  possession   of 

21 


Stefano  Bardini;  judging  by  the  armorial  bearings  on  it,  it  belonged  originally 
to  Duke  Federico  of  Urbino.  A  board  arranged  for  hanging,  with  four  turned 
clothes  hooks  affixed  to  it,  is  framed  with  very  much  stretched  consoles  on  the 
sides,  that  support  the  vigorous  moulding  and  rest  on  a  small  ledge  which 
serves  as  a  lower  finish.  The  decoration  is  of  simple  intarsia  in  which  the 
great  Montelfeltre  coat-of-arms  that  occupies  the  middle  space  is  worked  out 
in  detail.  The  capellinari  from  the  Cinquecento  are  in  construction  essentially 
the  same,  only  they  are  lower  and  generally  broader,  enabling  them  to  hold  a 
greater  number  of  delicately  turned  wooden  pegs  for  the  reception  of  clothes 
and  hats,  as  our  illustrations  (80  and  81)  show.  The  framing  corresponds  sub- 
stantially with  contemporaneous  picture  frames,  and  like  these,  it  is  occasion- 
ally relieved  with  gold.  Some  lac  dyes  that  are  from  time  to  time  brought  into 
the  armorial  bearings  increase  the  richness  of  these  characteristic  pieces  that  on 
account  of  the  taste  of  the  Florentine  artist-craftsmen  are  particularly  notable 
(111.  81).  A  distinctive  type  of  furniture — the  reading  '  desk,  leggio,  found 
a  use  at  times  even  in  the  living-rooms. 

We  must  also  bring  out  another  piece  from  among  the  house  furnishings 

•  of  the  Renaissance:  the  bed,  letto,  lettiere,  or  lettuccio,  as  it  was  in  its  old 
large  form  commonly  called.  It  belongs  among  the  most  important  of  the  fur- 
nishings of  the  Renaissance  and  has  been  correspondingly  handled.  The 
bed  of  a  married  couple  of  high  rank  stood  in  the  wife's  room,  the  beds  of  the' 
married  sons  and  daughters,  in  the  rooms  assigned  to  them.  In  the  wife's  room 
the  extraordinarily  capacious  bed  was  a  real  "mobile  immobile"  that,  exactly 

•  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  extended  chest-like  to  the  floor  and  had  a  high  tread- 
board   or  a  low  bench   running  around  it,   that  was  fitted  up  as  a  chest.     All 

•  these  things  made  this  feature  so  important  that  the  effect  of  the  apartment  of 
the  mistress  of  the  house  was  determined  by  the  bed,  as  was  that  of  the  recep- 

.  tion  room  by  the  throne  or  the  cassapanca.  While  from  the  Trecento  a  simple 
painted  bedstead,  rich  with  figure  decorations,  is  preserved  in  the  Ospedale  del 
Ceppo  in  Pistoja  (dated  1337),  for  the  later  Quattrocento  the  bed  in  the  Palazzo 
Davanzati  (from  Citta  di  Castello — sold  in  America?)  offers  almost  the  only 
fully  preserved  and  very  characteristic  example.  Contemporaneous  pictures 
and  illustrations  present  us  with  rich  material  for  clearing  up  the  history 
of  beds  in  Tuscany  during  the  Renaissance.  I  recall  a  pair  of  the  best  known 
frescoes  in  Florence;  for  the  Quattrocento,  Ghirlandajo's  "Birth  of  John  the 
Baptist",  in  the  Novella;  for  the  Early  Cinquecento,  Andrea  del  Sarto's  famous 
composition  with  the  same  subject,  in  the  fore-court  of  the  Annunziata  (com- 

j  pare  111.  26).  In  keeping  with  its  size  and  immobility  the  bed  was,  even  in  the 
advanced  High  Renaissance,  simple  and  mostly  straight  lined  in  form  and 
smooth  in  decoration;  later  this  was  restricted  in  general  to  a  few  intarsia  orna- 
ments, in  the  Cinquecento  to  modest  decoration  in  carving.  The  baldachino 
also,  that  in  Venice,  for  example,  was  seldom  lacking,  with  its  sumptuous  fit- 
tings over  the  head  of  the  bed,  seems  to  have  made  its  first  appearance  in 
Florence  in  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  then  customarily  sup- 
ported on  four  pillars,  and  a  painting  adorned  the  cover. 

11 


Occasionally,  however,  in  the  later  time,  extraordinarily  sumptuous  beds 
were  constructed,  especially  for  princely  personages.  These  were  sometimes 
inlaid  with  costly  woods,  ivory,  and  even  with  precious  metals,  sometimes 
carved  richly  or  set  off  with  small  pictures  by  eminent  painters.  Such  pieces 
came  into  the  palace  with  the  outfit  of  the  bride  and  were  then  its  principal 
show  piece,  judging  by  the  description  of  such  (as  house  furniture  quite  com- 
mon) bridal  beds  by  Vasari  and  others  of  the  time.  Mentioning  a  bed  of  the 
sort,  that  Pier  Francesco  Borgherini  commissioned  Baccio  d'Agnolo  to  carve 
and  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Pontormo,  Granacci  and  Bacchiacca  to  paint,  Vasari 
relates  a  story  about  the  wife  of  its  possessor,  Margherita  Acciajuoli,  that  in 
the  absence  of  her  husband  she  energetically  refused  the  high  offer  made  by  the 
agent  of  Francis  I  of  France  for  this  sumptuous  bed,  for  the  king. 

A  small  couch  on  short  turned  feet,  resembling  the  modern  chaise  longue, 
is  one  of  the  same  type,  transmitted  through  the  Rococo;  but  in  its  fittings, 
with  mattress,  under-bed,  pillows  and  sheets,  it  is  exactly  like  a  bed.  This  ap- 
peared somewhat  after  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Its  plain  form 
was  designed  to  promote  comfort  and  its  fitting  up  was  entirely  an  affair  of 
the  upholsterers.  Not  one  remaining  piece  is  known  to  me,  yet  we  see  it  quite 
often  in  paintings  by  Giulio,  Romano  and  Titian,  and  in  Marc  Antonio  prints, 
etc.  With  the  bed  the  cradle  also  came  out  in  the  Renaissance.  The  examples 
in  the  Kunstgewerbe-Museen  in  Cologne  and  Berlin  give  a  good  idea  of  their 
artistic  conformation. 

The  walls  in  the  rooms  of  Florentine  palaces  and  houses,  as  in  upper  Tus^ 
cany,  were  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance  as  a  rule  smooth,  and  decorated  with* 
different  kinds  of  flat  designs,  such  as  came  to  light  when  the  old  houses  of 
the  Mercato  Vecchio  were  torn  down,  and  as  they  appear  in  the  restoration  of 
the  Palazzo  Davanzati  at  Florence.  We  find  panelling  only  very  exceptionally,  • 
while  walls  hung  with  stuffs  were  equally  rare.  The  walls  of  the  sleeping  rooms 
were  occasionally  covered  with  hangings  of  small  animals'  skins  pieced  together, 
though  only  in  winter,  for  warmth.  Only  the  wealthiest  could  in  the  sixteenth* 
century  enjoy  the  luxury  of  a  tapestry  wall  covering  (hung  only  for  entertain- 
ments), as  French  tapestries  and  those  from  the  Netherlands  were  very  costly. 
Even  among  the  Medici  possessions  in  the  fifteenth  century  these  were  included 
only  as  rarities,  the  inventories  show.  Oftener  the  Gobelins  were  used  for 
backs  to  the  benches,  spallieri,  and  as  curtains  to  the  doors,  usciali;  they 
were  for  the  most  part  decorated  simply  with  small  plants  and  animals,  with 
coats-of-arms  woven  in.  The  art  of  tapestry  weaving  spread  into  Italy  in  1430,  - 
through  weavers  from  Flanders  who  were  first  called  to  Venice  and  Mantua. 
Soon  after  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  tapestry  weavers  from  the  Neth- 
erlands, who  had  settled  in  Ferrara,  came  for  a  time  to  Florence  from  Siena, 
where  they  had  worked  for  six  years,  but  during  the  whole  Quattrocento  the 
work  carried  out  here  was  insignificent  and  small  in  amount.  Later  the  revolu- 
tion in  Florence  prevented  any  development  of  the  Gobelin  industry.  With  the 
idea  of  founding  a  Gobelin  factory,  Cosimo,  in  1545,  summoned  the  Nether- 
landers  Nicolas  Karcher  and  Jan  Rost  from  Ferrara.    Thanks  to  the  interest  of 

23 


this  prince  the  factory  was  quickly  brought  into  a  flourishing  state;  what  they 
made  at  that  time  is  far  superior  to  contemporaneous  productions  in  other  parts 
of  Italy,  and  is  in  design  as  well  as  in  color,  quite  original.  The  distinctive  tap- 
estry character  is  better  preserved  in  these  than  in  the  picture  types  of  Flanders 
Gobelins  of  the  fifteenth  and  particularly  the  sixteenth  centuries.  The  wall  tap- 
estries that  are  preserved  in  the  Galleria  degli  Arazzi  of  the  Archjuological 
Museum  in  Florence  and  those  in  foreign  countries,  that  were  executed  by 
Karcher  from  cartoons  by  Bacchiacca,  Bronzino  and  Fr.  Salviati,  offer  an  in- 
teresting retrospective  view  of  wall  decoration,  especially  in  Florence.  The 
decoration  is  at  its  best  when  it  consists  of  ornament;  such  work  is  fantastic 
and  delicate  in  construction,  light  and  soft,  with  its  colors  on  a  golden  ground, 
showing  technique  at  times  of  the  highest  perfection.  These,  especially  of  the 
two  Bacchiacca  rooms,  that  are  among  the  most  sumptuous  and  finished,  equally, 
on  the  whole,  anything  in  tapestry  work  that  has  been  created.     Related,  but  *J 

•  even  lighter,  is  the  drawing  of  the  decorative  paint  and  plaster  ornament  of    / 
the   ceiling,   and   the  similar   painted   glass   in    the   windows.     Lastly,   Oriental 

•carpets,  possessed   in   greater  or  less   number  by   every   prominent   Florentine 
house  after  the  fifteenth  century,  complete  the  color  effect. 

In  spite  of  their  large  ar.d  vigorous  forms  and  the  considerable  space  they 
occupied,  certain  pieces  of  furniture  in  the  Florentine  rooms  of  the  Renaissance 
had  a  tendency  rather  to  enhance  the  spacious  effect  and  the  architectural  pro- 
portions of  the  room;  this  was  because  of  their  straight  monumental  form  and 
.  the   fact   that   they   were  suited   to   their   position   against   the  wall.     The   rich 
'  and  colorful  composition  and  equipment  of  the  floors,  ceilings  and  walls,  that 

•  in  their  light  hues  and  delicate  drawing  strengthened  the  large  and  roomy  ef- 

•  feet,  gave  to  the  furniture  a  remarkably  distinguished  and  magnificent  appear- 
.  ance.  The  painted  walls,  occasionally  with  panelling  decorated  in  gay  colored 
i  intarsia,  or  covered  with  textile,  the  vaulted  blue  tinted  ceilings  of  the  ground 
'  floor  rooms,  the  painted  and  gilded  wood  ceilings,  and  floor  of  mosarc  in  col- 

•  ored  stone  or  in  Robbia  tiles,  were  during  the  whole  fifteenth  century  in  keep- 

•  ing  with  the  furniture,  inlaid  as  it  was  with  different  woods,  and  gilded,  painted, 

•  or  fitted  up  in  gorgeous  colored  stuffs.  In  the  sixteenth  century  when  the 
walls  were  covered  with  the  restful  Gobelins  and  later  with  textile  fabrics, 
when  the  ceilings  were  constructed  of  brown  wood  lighted  up  with  gold,  only 
rarely  painted,  or  the  white  vaulting  had  a  light  decoration  of  painted  plaster, 
and  when  the  floor  showed  a  simple  pattern  of  mat  colored  stone  flags,  the 
wood  of  the  furniture  retained  its  own  color,  only  made  a  little  deeper  by  toning, 
and  occasionally  lighted  up  with  fine  toned  gilding.  For  this  reason  it  was 
enlivened  with  strong  profile  work  and  projections,  as  well  as  through  carv- 
ing, and  made,  with  the  rich  colors  of  the  cushioning,  pillows,  covers  and  car- 
pets, an  effective  contrast. 

We  can  with  difficulty  form  a  conception  of  the  individuality  and  variety 
of  the  richness  and  the  sumptuosity  of  a  Florentine  palace  or  a  Florentine 
villa,  or  of  the  repose  and  harmony  of  the  whole,  because  of  the  lack  of  archi- 
tectural and  color  sense  from  which  our  time  still  suffers  in  spite  of  ostensible 

24 


progress;   for  such  rooms,  in   their  perfection,  unfortunately   no   longer  exist. 
Complete  old  rooms  and  house   Fittings,  like  the  Swiss  rooms  that   the  Swiss 
Landesmuseum  brings  out  in  such  considerable  numbers,  have  not  been  pre- 
served from   the  same  period  in   Italy,  nor  were  they  rescued  in  time  by  the 
museums.     The  few  attempts  to  reconstruct  such  rooms  in  the  museums  have 
generally   been    made   in   modern    apartments   spoiled   by    unfortunate   propor 
lions   and    decorations,    and   it   has   usually    been    done    by    throwing    together 
smaller  and  more  or  less  ruined  pieces  from  different  parts  of  Italy,  belonging 
to  different  periods,  in   a  careless  and  overloaded  arrangement,  if  not  in   the 
manner  of  a  shop.     Far  happier  is  the  design  of  the  Palazzo  Davanzati  at  Flor 
ence,  with  truly  antique  decorations  and  real  untouched  furniture,  mostly  Flor- 
entine oi    the   fifteenth  century   and   the   beginning  of  the  sixteenth   century. 
The  truest  picture,  however,  that  we  can  have  is  that  obtained  from  the  repre 
sentations  of  these   things  in  the   frescos,  paintings  and  illustrations,  even  if 
they  are  generally  treated  as  accessories  and  are  too  incomplete. 

Almost  until  the  close  of  the  High  Renaissance  Siena  maintained  its  in- 
dependence against  its  old  rival,  Florence,  in  the  art  of  furniture  making,  in 
spite  of  the  relationship,  as  completely  as  in  high  art.  Unfortunately  little 
remains  in  its  place  and  position,  and  what  has  come  into  the  dealers'  hands 
has  been  sold  from  Florence,  and  generally  passes  as  Florentine.  Siena  is 
especially  lacking  in  enough  furniture  of  the  fifteenth  century  for  us  to  lay 
hold  of,  but  since  the  house  furnishings  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  in  kind 
and  form  very  closely  related  to  those  of  Florence,  we  may  well  assume  that 
the  same  is  true  of  the  earlier  time.  In  the  Cinquecento  the  furniture  of 
Siena  was  characterized  by  a  large  and  fine  simplicity  and  severity  of  form, 
with  richness  and  originality  in  ornament.  Siena  had  at  that  time  architects 
like  Peruzzi,  and  wood  carvers  and  decorators  like  Barile  and  Marrii.a;  ?ucn, 
and  similar  artists  have  influenced  the  decoration  of  the  furniture  of  their 
native  city,  and  have  themselves  occasionally  made  it.  The  richly  carve-J 
^unfortunately  much  worked  over)  casket  by  Barile,  preserved  in  the  Town 
Hall  (111.  85),  is  as  fine  in  construction  as  it  is  in  ornament.  Characteristic  in 
form  and  decoration  of  a  somewhat  later  time  is  a  chest  embellished  with 
delicate  intarsia,  with  the  Piccolomini  arms,  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-inuseum 
(111.  84).  That  the  throne  also  was  not  unknown  in  the  large  palaces  ;s  in- 
dicated by  a  striking  piece  that  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Berliner  Kunst- 
gewerbe-Museum.  It  is  richly  gilded  on  plaster  ornament  against  a  blue- 
toned  ground.  The  Hebraic  inscriptions  on  the  panels,  that  shine  through 
the  later  painting  over,  betray  the  fact  that  it  came  from  a  synagogue  (111. 
86).  The  old  bench  is  missing  and  is  replaced  in  the  museum  by  a  later 
chest  of  about  the  same  size.  The  ornamentation  in  the  style  of  Lorenzo 
Marrina  shows  the  origin  of  this  throne  to  have  been  Siena.  It  is  believed  to 
have  been  constructed  for  one  of  the  palaces  and  later  presented  to  a  syna- 
gogue. It  seems  to  me  more  likely  that  it  was  in  the  first  place  designed  for 
the  latter,  as  the  church  throne  that  came  over  from  the  Gothic  period,  and 
the  Bishop's  chair  at  the  side  of  the  high  altar,  furnished  models  for  similar 

25 


pieces  in  the  Tuscan  palaces.  The  nearly  related  form  and  similar  decoration, 
as  well  as  the  castor,  which  is  found  on  church  furniture  in  the  cabinet  work 
of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  make  this  seem  probable.  Paintings 
and  miniatures  show  that  also  in  the  Gothic  period  the  throne,  even  without 
decorations,  was  recognized  as  a  piece  of  house  furniture. 

From  among  the  Sienese  credenze  of  this  period  the  Kaiser  Friedrich- 
Museum  has  a  three-sided  piece  of  about  1530-1540  (111.  89)  that  in  its 
unusually  fine  proportions  and  profile  work,  as  in  the  very  effectively  disposed, 
delicate,  almost  purely  architectural  ornament,  clearly  indicates  the  style  and 
art  method  of  Peruzzi.  A  somewhat  later,  two-sided  credenza  often  appearing, 
is  not  quite  so  fine  on  account  of  the  stronger  projection  of  this  ornamentation. 
A  good  example  is  shown  in  111.  59.  As  closely  related  are  the  Florentine  and 
Sienese  tables  of  the  same  period,  as  the  table  three  meters  long,  from  the 
Palazzo  Palmieri  in  Siena,  bearing  the  arms  of  the  family,  proves  (111.  87). 
This  is  now  the  property  of  H.  V.  Sickart,  of  Vienna.  On  a  writing  cabinet 
of  about  the  same  period  (approximately  1540)  we  find  characteristic  orna- 
ment of  a  similar  kind,  while  the  writing  tablet  is  decorated  with  intarsia. 
Among  the  cabinets  from  Siena  a  few  have  been  preserved  that  give  us  an 
idea  of  the  painted  furniture,  as  Vasari  described  it.  Such  was  the  three-sided 
painted  cabinet  for  arms  in  the  Palazzo  Davanzati ;  the  decoration  in  a  design 
which  included  weapons  was  painted  in  Sodoma's    workshop   (111.  90). 

The  furniture  of  the  Renaissance  in  Umbria  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Apennines,  especially  in  Perugia,  has  a  Tuscan  character  but  with  an  individual 
stamp.  Yet,  like  the  Sienese  furniture  (since  it  also  has  not  been  recognized  as 
such  when  it  has  fallen  into  the  dealers'  hands)  it  has  been  little  studied,  so 
we  must  limit  ourselves  in  characterizing  it.  The  Tuscan  influence  is  felt  in 
the  same  degree  in  the  furniture  that,  according  to  indications,  originated  in 
the  Duchy  of  Urbino,  which,  having  a  close  political  connection  with  Florence, 
fell  more  under  her  influence  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance  than  did  Siena. 
Duke  Federigo  entrusted  to  prominent  Florentine  artists  the  decoration  of 
the  rooms  of  his  new  palace,  in  which  admirable  wainscoting  with  intarsia  is 
still  preserved  in  its  place  and  position.  Among  a  few  noteworthy  chests,  put 
together  with  smooth  boards  and  decorated  only  with  separate,  very  simple,  geo- 
metrical ornaments,  either  burned  in  or  inlaid  (111.  92,  Bardini  Collection,  Flor- 
ence), another  type  survives  from  the  Middle  Ages.  A  small  casket  of  the  same 
time  (111.  15)  and  a  unique  commode,  similar  in  construction  to  the  credenza 
(111.  91),  follow  the  Tuscan  model  in  the  simple  palmetto  decoration  in  carving 
and  intarsia,  of  strong  slightly  peasant-like  composition.  In  a  clothes  rack, 
with  the  arms  of  Duke  Federigo  (Bardini  Collection),  the  same  style  is  shown 
in  the  form  and  in  the  intarsia  in  a  finer  way. 


26 


VENICE   AND   THE    MAINLAND 

The  subordination  of  Venetian  furnishings  to  the  Venetian  dwelling-house 
is  particularly  striking.  Because  of  the  position  of  Venice,  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea,  on  a  number  of  small  islands  cut  through  by  numerous  canals,  these 
have  a  very  peculiar  form  and  ground  plan,  which  has  its  effect  in  turn  on 
Venetian  furniture.  On  this  account  it  differs  more  or  less  from  that  of  the 
rest  of  Italy. 

The  house  of  the  noble  like  that  of  the  wealthy  Venetian  stood,  and  stands  * 
today,  with  its  front  on  a  canal — where  possible  on  the  Canale  Grande — with 
its  back  toward  a  street.  It  has  an  entrance  on  both  sides;  the  main  entrance 
is,  however,  on  the  canal,  as  the  gondola  furnishes  to  Venice  its  only  means  of 
intercourse.  The  street  entrance  led  through  a  small  court  or  close  by  it. 
These  entrances  open  on  both  sides  into  a  long  low  vestibule,  that  runs 
straight  through  the  whole  house  from  the  canal  to  the  court;  on  each  side 
are  the  rooms  devoted  to  household  affairs.  The  stairs  go  up  at  one  side,  not 
quite  so  narrow  but  almost  as  steep  as  those  in  the  palaces  of  Florence. 
These  lead  to  the  main  floor,  which  is  disposed  in  the  same  way.  Over  the  en- 
trance hall,  or  rather  corridor,  lies,  in  the  same  form  and  dimensions,  the 
large  main  room,  generally  higher  than  on  the  ground  floor  and  much  lighter, 
as  it  is  closed  at  both  ends  with  high  windows  in  arcades:  a  vestibuie  for  the 
small  connecting  living-rooms  on  each  side,  and  at  the  same  time  a  reception 
and  entertainment  hall,  the  favorite  abiding  place  of  the  Venetian,  and  suited 
to  him,  with  its  long  sides  embellished  galierywise  with  paintings  and  Gobelins. 
In  the  story  above  are  the  bedrooms  and  other  connecting  rooms.  In  the  oldest 
and  most  contracted  parts  or  the  city  the  stairs  had  their  place  in  the  court, 
as  an  open  stairway,  or  tower-like  with  winding  steps  going  up  to  the  highest 
story. 

Simplicity   and   roominess,   which   were   the  characteristic   features   of  this* 
plan,  were  reflected  proportionally  in  the  house  furnishings,  during  the  Gothic 
period  as  in  the  Renaissance,  the  Baroque,  and  the  Rococo.  The  antique  fitting  up 
of  the  rooms  in  the  Doge's  Palace  and  in  certain  schools,  as  well  as  in  a  few  pal- 
aces— of   a   later  period,   indeed — gives   us   today   a   fairly    true  picture   of  the 
Venetian  palace  ot   the  Renaissance.  No  built-in   furniture,  no  great  pieces  or  * 
established  groups,  hindered  a  comprehensive  glance  or  free  movement,  espec- 
ially in  the  large  main  room.     The  furniture  was  more  often  restricted  to  the 
walls;  it  ran  around  the  sides  in  the  form  of  benches,  mostly  attached  to  the 
wainscot,  or  as  chests,  while  tables  and  beds   rested  against  the  walis  in  the 
bedrooms.     Over    the   benches    the   walls    were  hung   with    long   low   Gobelins  • 
in  an  all-over  pattern  of  verdure  and  finished  above  with  a  border.   There  were, 
with  all  kinds  of  household  utensils  for  daily  use,  candlesticks,  lamps,  boxes, 

27 


vases,  etc.,  for  the  rich;  for  scholars  and  art  amateurs,  all  kinds  of  small  art  crea- 
tions, old  and  new,  with  instruments,  books  and  similar  possessions.  Large 
paintings  or  Gobelins  decorated  the  walls  of  the  salon,  a  small  mirror  or  a 
painting  those  of  the  other  rooms;  before  everything  there  was  in  chese  rooms 
a  "Grecian"  Madonna  in  a  rich  tabernacle,  with  a  small  lamp  and  a  costly  silk 
curtain  before  it,  which  also  shielded  the  mirror. 

When  we  attempt  to  find  out  about  these  pieces  of  the  Renaissance  period 
in  detail  we  encounter  extraordinary  difficulties.  While  we  can  refer  to  a 
hundred  Florentine  chests  of  the  fifteenth  century,  while  tables  and  credenze 
are  yet  preserved  in  considerable  numbers,  and  of  other  kinds  of  furniture  of 
the  Quattrocento  at  least  one  or  more  can  be  found,  for  the  period  from  the 
Middle  Ages  to  this  time,  we  have  nothing  to  say;  so  far  as  I  know,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  mirrors  and  small  fittings  of  the  kind,  hardly  a  piece  re- 
mains. And  yet  the  equipment  of  the  Venetian  houses  was,  as  the  carefully 
made  inventories  left  behind  prove,  unusually  sumptuous.  Venice  has,  thanks 
to  its  position,  almost  entirely  escaped  plundering,  earthquakes,  ravaging  fires 
and  the  like  misfortunes,  that  in  other  places  have  wrought  fearful  havot 
among  arc  works  and  furnishings.  How  this  complete  lack  of  all  furniture 
from  earner  times  can  be  explained,  is  a  puzzle.  For  the  deterioration  of  the 
city  and  of  almost  all  its  families  since  the  Napoleonic  era  does  not  alone 
offer  a  sufficient  explanation  for  this  state  of  things,  since  the  old  furniture,  that 
until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  almost  entirely  disregarded  and 
worthless,  would  have  been,  under  such  wretched  conditions  as  those  of  Venice 
at  this  time,  the  more  likely  to  be  kept  in  their  attics  or  even  in  con- 
tinued use.  Probably  it  was  due  much  more  to  the  fact  that  up  to  the  time 
when  she  lost  her  power,  Venice  was  rich  and  flourishing,  exhibiting  the  great- 
est luxury;  in  consequence  she  played  a  similar  role  to  that  of  Paris  from  the 
time  the  decree  went  forth  that  the  house  also  should  always  be  fitted  up  in 
modern  style;  hence  old  furniture  was  generally  banished,  after  which  it  rapidly 
went  to  ruin.  But  even  so,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why — to  mention  only 
one  example — of  the  many  thousand  chests,  decorated  with  painting,  carving, 
or  inlaid  work,  that  according  to  the  inventories  in  the  last  decades  of  the 
fifteenth  century  were  in  the  Venetian  houses  (in  every  house  of  a  family  of 
any  standing  there  were  one  or  two  dozen  of  these  mentioned  in  the  inventor- 
ies), only  a  very  few  are  preserved. 

As  in  the  Florentine  house,  so  in  the  Venetian,  the  most  important  piece 
of  furniture  is  the  chest,  the  cassa,  or  the  forzier,  as  it  was  called  in  Venice. 
Truly  it  played  here  a  more  important  role  than  in  Florence.  We  find  in  the 
inventories  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries  ten  or 
twelve,  sometimes  twenty  or  more,  chests  mentioned,  and  even  partly  described, 
but  with  them  hardly  a  table  or  so  much  as  a  chair  or  stool.  It  may  be  in  part 
because  this  everyday  furniture,  especially  in  the  Quattrocento,  was  so  plain 
and  worthless  that  it  was  not  particularly  specified.  But  it  is  evident 
what  importance  the  chests  had  at  that  time  and  that  these  before  all  other 
pieces  they  loved  to  have  finished  artistically. 

28 


In  fact  the  chest  represented  in  Venice  not  only  the  wardrobe  and  com* 
mode,  but  also  in  part  the  chair  and  table.  Venetian  chests  were  as  a  rule  low, 
with  a  flat  top,  and  were  used  as  benches  to  sit  on  ;  occasionally,  however,  they 
were  very  high,  and  then  they  were  used  as  tables.  The  paintings  and  woodcuts 
give  a  good  idea  of  both.  The  conventional  scant  handling  of  the  woodcut  at 
the  end  of  the  Quattrocento  gives  the  furniture  only  in  a  very  modelled  and 
rudimentary  form;  for  the  details  we  depend  on  the  short  descriptions  in  con- 
temporary inventories  and  on  conclusions  drawn  from  the  chests  that  we  have 
from  the  Cinquecento  and  contemporary  Tuscan  pieces,  respectively.  To  go  by 
these,  the  early  Venetian  chests,  when  they  were  artistically  finished,  which  in 
the  houses  of  the  well-to-do  often,  if  not  mostly,  was  the  case,  were  either 
painted  or  decorated  with  inlaid  work,  the  first,  as  a  rule.  The  usual  chests  ' 
showed  the  arms  of  the  owner  and  had  ornamentation  on  a  colored  ground, 
the  finer  ones  being  decorated  with  figure  compositions.  The  rarer  intarsia 
chests,  generally  high  and  rectangular,  were  used  as  tables  for  the  reception  of 
small  objects,  or  to  rest  the  hand  on  (compare  111.  on  page  7).  Carved  chests 
were  apparently  rare  in  Venice  until  the  beginning  of  the  Cinquecento,  and 
they  are  found  first  in  the  last  decades  of  the  Quattrocento.  As  far  as  we  can 
judge  by  somewhat  later  pieces  of  the  kind,  and  from  the  Venetian  frames  of 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  these  were  embellished  with  delicate  flat 
candelabra  and  leaf  ornament;  yet,  as  in  the  frames,  this  was  worked  out  in 
plaster  instead  of  in  the  characteristic  carving  that  had  been  the  rule.  This 
is  shown  in  a  number  of  beautiful  chests  with  plaster  ornament,  that  must 
have  originated  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  are  now  in  the 
Kaiser  Friedrich-Museum  and  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  (111.  94-96). 
The  jewel  chest  was  particularly  rich  in  execution.  An  excellently  preserved 
piece  from  the  beginning  of  the  Cinquecento,  Gothic  in  its  outside  decoration, 
is  in  the  possession  of  the  Berliner  Kunstgewerbe-Museum  (111.  93). 

Next  to  the  chest  comes  the  low  bench  attached  to  the  wall,  as  the  usual  • 
seating  furniture  of  the  Venetian.  In  the  hall  and  in  the  great  room  over  it 
these  run  along  both  sides,  and  there  is  a  similar  arrangement  in  the  living- 
rooms  and  bedrooms.  Even  at  banquets  they  sat  on  these  narrow  wait  benches, 
the  dining-table  being  drawn  up  to  them.  One  long  sids  toward  the  middle  of 
the  room  was  unoccupied  in  order  that  the  servants  might  bring  on  the  food 
more  conveniently.  With  these,  sgabelli  and  stools  are  found  only  sparingly 
and  of  simple  form  and  execution;  in  the  kitchen  and  the  bedrooms  they  were 
generally  covered  with  woven  straw  and  not  seldom  in  the  rooms  even  of  the 
palaces.  The  tables  were  equally  simple,  as  a  ruie  only  boards  laid  on  trestles, 
and  covered  with  linen  or  Oriental  carpets  that  might  be  removed  at  any  time. 
Large  tables  seem  to  have  appeared  first  toward  the  end  of  the  Quattrocento 
and  are  related  to  the  Florentine  tables  (111.  98).  After  that,  through  Sanso- 
vino,  Florentine  art  exercised  a  stronger  influence  over  Venetian  art  craft 
work,  and  the  forms  of  the  tables  also  resembled  those  of  Florence  more 
closely  (111.  99  and  100). 

Wlith   this  movable  or  provisional   furniture  there  were,  as  we  see  in   the 

29 


illustrations,  certain  sumptuous  pieces,  chairs  as  well  as  tables,  that  were 
found  in  the  houses  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  families  (111.  101).  Several 
show  pieces  of  the  kind  are  known  to  everyone  from  Carpaccio's  painting — St. 
Jerome  in  his  Study  (111.  102).  They  have  a  very  delicate  appearance,  as  they 
are  mostly  built  of  wood  and  metal  together.  The  work-chair,  with  a  small 
writing-desk  before  it  is  built  entirely  of  wood;  it  is,  however,  wholly  covered 
with  a  red  material  and  richly  decorated  with  brass  knobs  and  balls.  The 
small  writing-desk  and  its  stand  are  constructed  in  the  same  way.  The  work 
table,  at  which  Jerome  sits,  has  one  side  against  the  wall  (so  that  it  may 
be  put  up)  supported  on  bronze  consoles,  the  other  side  rests  on  a  very  deli- 
cate, richly  jointed  bronze  leg.  The  top,  like  the  bench  and  the  platform,  is 
covered  in  stuff  and  decorated  with  gilded  bronze  nails.  Models  related  to 
these  are  found  in  other  Venetian  paintings,  especially  in  those  by  Carpaccio. 
Similar  work-chairs,  wholly  of  metal,  seem,  from  the  single  pieces  preserved 
from  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  not  to  have  changed  materially 
since  the  Trecento.  They  have  the  usual  X  form,  the  legs  and  arms  being  of 
iron,  sometimes  covered  in  stuff;  the  balls,  feet,  and  joints  are  of  brass  or 
gilded  bronze  (compare  111.  102). 

Furniture  ol  this  kind  was  as  rare  as  the  iron  carved  chair  of  Germany 
in  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  centuries, 
or  the  silver  tables  and  chairs  that  adorned  the  rooms  of  state  in  the  town 
residences  of  the  princes  in  Germany  and  in  the  Northern  kingdoms. 

In  the  inventories  of  the  time,  that  mentioned  each  chest,  often  giving  a 
short  description,  only  exceptionally  a  table  or  a  i'ew  chairs  appear.  Thus  in 
1473  we  find  in  the  inheritance  of  a  rich  silk  merchant  twenty-three  chests  and 
only  four  chairs.  The  plain  stools  and  chairs  had  doubtless,  as  already  men- 
tioned, been  passed  over.  All  this  shows,  however,  how  important  it  was  to 
the  Venetian,  even  more  than  to  the  Florentine,  to  keep  the  apartment  roomy 
and  unencumbered,  placing  the  furniture,  as  far  as  possible,  close  to  the  wall 
or  attached  to  it.  Hence  we  do  not  find  during  the  fifteenth  century  in  Venice, 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  even  the  rudiments  of  a  cabinet,  aside  from  the  wall  cupboard 
— open  or  without  doors — that  was  used  for  every  sort  of  utensil  and  also  lor 
books.  The  credenza,  even,  does  not  appear  at  this  time,  nor  yet  before,  at 
least  not  in  its  perfected  form,  but  only  as  a  construction  used  for  food,  etc., 
like  the  dining-table  put  together  with  trestles,  boards,  and  framework,  a/.d 
covered  with  linen  or  textile. 

The  most  important  piece  in  what  was  properly  the  living-room  of  the 
family  was,  as  everywhere  in  Italy,  the  bed.  Hardly  to  be  classed  as  furniture, 
truly,  being  so  large  and  massive  that  it  must  have  been  practically  immovable. 
In  form  and  fittings  the  bed  of  the  Venetian  seems  to  have  differed  very  little 
from  that  of  the  Florentine.  The  head  stood  against  the  wall,  while  a  step  ran 
around  the  remaining  sides;  this  was  high  enough  to  be  used  as  a  bench  and  as 
a  chest.  The  stringboards  were  finished  in  rich  profile  work,  higher  at  the  back, 
while  the  whole  structure  was  richly  fitted  up  and  crowned  with  a  baldachino 
over  the  head.     An  excellent  picture  of  a  living-room  with  a  bed,  in  a  house  of 

30 


some  pretensions,  is  shown  in  a  painting  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
by  Carpaccio. 

Among  the  sumptuous  pieces  the  mirror  was  a  great  favorite  in  Venice 
toward  the  end  of  the  Quattrocento.  These  were  of  polished  metal,  therefore 
small,  but  generally  in  elaborate  broad  frames  and  were  shielded  by  a  curtain 
©f  fine — usually  Oriental — material.  In  Venice  the  round  form,  that  was  rare 
in  Florence,  was  preferred;  the  frame,  with  rich,  delicate  plant  forms  in  low 
relief,  carved  or  pressed  in  a  mould,  were  as  a  rule  gilded.  According  to  the 
examples  that  we  have  (these  also  are  from  the  transition  of  the  fifteenth  to 
the  sixteenth  centuries,  though  they  have  a  Quattrocento  character)  the  decor- 
ation of  the  mirror  corresponds  exactly  to  the  Venetian  frames;  both  were 
certainly  made  in  the  same  workshop.  The  mirror  being  a  rarity,  probably  be- 
cause the  preparation  of  the  polished  metal  was  costly,  it  follows  that  only  one 
was  ever  mentioned  in  the  inheritance  inventories,  and  that  they  are  not  even 
found  in  all  the  houses  of  wealthy  people. 

Another  piece  of  wall  furniture  that  was  peculiar  to  Venice,  is  the  restello,' 
the  rack.  In  the  inventories  it  was  often  mentioned,  occasionally  also  in  the 
wills,  and  from  the  description  we  see  that  it  was  a  particularly  valued  piece 
and  that  they  took  care  to  have  it  constructed  in  a  most  sumptuous  manner. 
Like  the  mirror,  the  restello  was  rare,  and  more  than  one  was  almost  never 
made  for  the  same  house.  Unfortunately  until  now,  only  one,  of  Lombard 
origin,  is  known  to  us;  it  is  in  the  Bagatti  collection  in  Milan.  It  has  a  half 
Gothic  form,  so  we  are  left  very  much  in  doubt  as  to  the  usual  form  and  finish 
of  the  restello.  We  owe  what  information  we  have  to  the  highly  praiseworthy 
investigations  of  Dr.  Gustav  Ludwig,  concerning  the  art  and  culture  of  Venice. 
A  significant  piece  of  this  kind  was  owned  by  the  wealthy  painter,  Vincenzo 
Catena,  which  was  decorated  with  small  allegorical  paintings  by  his  master, 
Giovanni  Bellini;  it  is  now  in  the  gallery  of  the  Academy  of  Venice.  Origin- 
ally the  mirror  was  attached  to  the  restello.  On  the  border  that  closes  it  below, 
stood  small  antiques,  bronze  figures,  candlesticks  and  the  like,  while  under  that 
were  hung  at  first,  richly  ornamented  toilet  articles,  later,  astrolabes  and  ves- 
sels used  in  the  Mass,  as  we  see  in  St.  Jerome's  Study,  by  Carpaccio  (compare 
111.  103).  Here  the  mouldings  in  the  room  in  the  foreground,  as  well  as  in  the 
small  back  room,  run  around,  forming  the  finish  to  the  textile  wall  covering 
that  takes  the  place  of  panelling,  while  the  restello  was  properly  a  wall  piece 
that  hung  between  paintings  in  the  main  room,  so  that  the  useful  objects  stand-' 
ing  on  it  might  be  close  at  hand  if  needed.  We  see  something  resembling 
this  in  the  well  known  portrait  of  Jorg  Gysze,  by  Hans  Holbein,  in  the  Berlin 
Gallery.  As  a  last  offshoot  of  this  furniture  we  have  the  dainty  hanging  shelves 
to  consider;  these  are  usually  made  of  three  boards  resting  on  slender  turned 
columns.  From  Italy  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  we  have 
quite  a  number,  and  similar  ones  appear  among  us,  in  Germany. 

For  the  Cinquecento  we  are  better  informed  about  the  house  furnishings 
in  Venice  also,  as  a  quantity  of  examples  have  been  preserved,  though  by  no 
means  in  such  great  numbers  as  in  Florence.  As  with  painting  and  especially 

31 


with  sculpture,  art  handicraft  retained  the  style  of  the  Quattrocento  for  two  or 
three  decades  almost  unchanged,  the  only  difference  being  a  richer  construc- 
tion. The  methods  of  decoration  in  use  among  the  Lombardi,  a  family  of  sculp- 
tors and  architects,  determined  also  the  ornamentation  of  furniture.  The 
chests,  like  the  mirror,  and  frames  of  all  kinds,  are  covered  over  with  delicate 
plant  ornament,  as  the  young  Lombardi,  Antonio  and  Tullio,  had  perfected  it. 
The  wall-back  of  the  benches  and  the  covering  over  the  doors  are  made  of  fitted 
Gobelins  (the  so-called  verdure,  with  armorial  bearings  between  small  flowers 
or  bushes)  ;  Asiatic  carpets  bedeck  the  floors  and  lie  over  the  tables,  while  Ori- 
ental objects  of  all  kinds,  intermixed  with  bronzes  of  Paduan  and  Venetian 
origin,  ornament  the  shelves,  as  well  as  the  door  and  chimney  cornices.  Paint- 
ings that  in  earlier  times  were  isolated  and  generally  kept  more  as  devotional 
pieces,  now  hang  in  greater  numbers  on  the  walls,  though  indeed  there  are 
even  now  only  one  or  a  few  portraits,  a  Madonna  picture,  and  occasionally  a 
mythological  or  allegorical  composition.  Picture  galleries  were  in  the  first  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century  yet  unknown  in  Venice;  the  tew  collectors  sought 
before  everything  to  bring  together  antique  statues  and  other  antiquities,  small 
works  of  art  and  curiosities  of  different  kinds;  with  these  only  a  small  number 
of  paintings  and  large  carvings  appeared. 

The  wall  tapestries  that  in  large  numbers  decorated  every  fine  house  in 
Venice  were  manifestly,  the  great  majority  of  them,  of  Netherland  origin;  the 
arms  of  the  families,  that  many  of  them  bear,  are  not  woven  in,  but  embroid- 
ered on,  which  method  was  first  used  in  Venice.  Of  the  earliest  "verdure"  that 
has  been  preserved  to  us  and  that  has  come  from  the  different  palaces  of  Ven- 
ice and  its  environs,  only  rarely  is  a  piece  ascertained  to  be  Venetian  work. 
From  representations  of  such  wall  tapestries  that  we  see  in  contemporary  paint- 
ings, especially  by  Carpaccio,  we  can  best  learn  about  their  arrangement.  Large 
Netherland  tapestries,  arazzi,  were  at  that  time  a  great  rarity  and  were  at  first 
devoted  only  to  the  embellishment  of  churches  and  public  buildings.  In  the 
course  of  the  Cinquecento  we  also  find  them,  and  indeed  in  whole  series,  in  the 
living-rooms  of  the  Venetian  merchants.  With  the  Gobelins  a  wall  covering  of 
close  woven  material  of  one  color,  made  of  a  mixture  of  linen  and  wool,  was 
very  much  used  in  Venice,  where  they  covered  the  lower  part  of  the  walls,  that 
in  the  North  at  this  time  was  frequently  panelled  in  wood,  and  later  in  Italy 
also.  Rich  materials,  especially  the  deep  red  velvet,  came  into  general  use  in 
the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century;  this  gave  to  the  rooms  a  remarkably 
sumptuous  and  an  unusually  comfortable  air,  as  the  deep,  almost  neutral  tone 
was  not  in  any  way  obtrusive.  On  the  other  hand  we  find  leather  wall  covering 
in  Venice  from  the  middle  of  the  Quattrocento;  it  was  called  cuoi  d'oro  be- 
cause gold  was  the  color  most  in  evidence.  This,  with  the  richly  gilded  wood 
ceiling,  must  have  produced  a  splendid  effect. 

A  change  in  Venetian  art  craft  took  place  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  through  the  infiltration  of  Florentine  an,  especially  following 
Jacopo  Sansovino's  arrival  and  settlement  in  Venice  after  the  sack  of  Rome  in 
the  year  1527.     The  change  was  made  at  first  slowly,  then  fast  and  fundamen- 

32 


tally,  until  cabinet  art,  as  it  had  developed  in  Florence  under  the  influence  of 
Michelangelo,  acquired  the  mastery  over  Venetian  houses.  Painting  was  almost 
entirely  given  up;  in  the  place  of  the  delight  in  color  and  preference  for  rich 
gilding  came  the  principle  that  the  value  of  the  natural  color  of  the  material 
should  be  brought  out,  well  toned,  indeed,  and  with  a  sparing  use  of  gold,  but 
this  only  with  thorough  toning.  The  forms  were  brought  out  more  sumptu- 
ously and  the  decoration  consisted  principally  of  carving  in  strong  relief, 
worked  out  with  mixed  ornament  of  fantastic  masks,  scrollwork  and  figure 
compositions. 

Requirements  increased  and  pretensions  grew  greater,  in  consequence  fur- 
niture was  more  varied  and  more  numerous.  We  find  armchairs  and  side  chairs, 
as  well  as  sgabelli,  in  a  richer  form  among  the  wall  benches.  The  bed  especial- 
ly, was  grandly  set  up,  with  richly  carved  string  boards  and  voluminous  cur- 
tains. The  chests  too,  remained  in  number  and  richness  of  ornament — gener- 
ally through  vigorous  carving — the  most  important  piece  of  furniture,  though 
they  did  not  so  invariably  occupy  the  foreground  as  formerly. 

Characteristic  are  the  cassette — small  chests  and  caskets.  In  the  late  Tre- 
cento the  workshop  of  the  Embriacchi,  in  Venice,  had  already  produced  jewel 
caskets  of  bone  or  ivory  with  rich  figure  compositions  representing  ancient 
sagas  and  romances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which,  all  over  upper  Italy,  were  the 
most  sought  after  of  house  furnishings.  In  the  sixteenth  century  similar  cas- 
kets, mostly  for  the  safekeeping  of  feminine  ornaments,  were  among  the  princi- 
pal features  of  a  lady's  room.  While  in  Florence  they  were  carved  in  walnut  in 
a  vigorous  manner,  with  classic  ornament,  and  only  occasionally  gilded,  in 
Venice  they  were  painted:  on  a  lacquer-like,  dark,  usually  blackish  ground 
are  small  color  compositions  brought  into  a  cartouche-like  framing,  the  corners 
of  which  are  filled  with  fine  gold  ornament;  the  handle  on  the  top,  the  sides, 
and  at  times  the  feet  as  well,  are  of  gilded  bronze,  and  are  of  the  most  delicate 
form  (111.  96).  This  is  the  same  kind  of  decoration  that  we  find  in  Venice,  at 
the  time,  in  small  frames  designed  for  miniatures,  and  25  it  appears  in  a  like 
manner  in  book  bindings. 

Musical  instruments,  though  not  before  considered,  acquired  in  the  Cinque- 
cento  a  certain  importance  in  house  furnishing,  through  the  perfecting  of  the 
clavichord,  which  had  in  Venice  an  unusually  beautiful  and  artistic  shape.  The 
wing-shaped  body  of  fine  light  wood  was  placed  in  a  larger  case  embellished 
with  painting  and  set  up  on  slender  legs;  this  was  cut  so  that  the  ornament  of 
the  inner  body  might  be  seen.  Several  such  clavichords,  among  them  one  for- 
merly belonging  to  Alfonso  II  of  Ferrara,  are  in  the  Berliner  Kunstgewerbe 
Museum   (111.   101a),  and  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum. 

Almost  all  of  this  furniture  is  in  form  and  decoration  little  divergent  from 
the  contemporary  Florentine  furniture,  that  at  times  served  as  a  model;  what 
lias  been  said  of  that  is  equally  true  of  this.  Yet  certain  particularly  character- 
istic Florentine  pieces,  like  the  cassapanca  and  the  throne,  did  not  become 
naturalized  in  Venice  any  more  than  they  did  in  the  rest  of  Italy.  Chairs  and 
armchairs,  as  well  as  the  sgabello  (rarely  found  in  Venice)  have,  as  in  Florence 

33 


a  high,  narrow  shape.  The  tables,  now  more  numerous,  are  at  times  very  fine  in 
shape  and  of  a  considerable  size,  such  as  the  five-meter  long  table  of  Paduan 
origin,  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-Museum  (111.  100),  that  yet  holds  the  old  reddish 
toning  and  the  partial  gilding.  The  ornamentation  of  all  these  pieces  of  the 
middle  and  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  although  nearly  related  to 
Florentine  furniture  of  this  time,  is  more  picturesque  in  construction  and 
effect,  richer  and  more  inclined  to  the  Baroque. 

The  fittings  of  the  fireplace,  that  in  the  fifteenth  century  in  Tuscany  and 
practically  in  all  the  rest  of  Italy  were  regularly  of  iron,  showed  in  the  six- 
teenth century  a  preponderance  of  bronze  and  brass,  and  were  often  finished 
in  a  costly  way.  The  alari,  andirons  for  holding  the  logs,  were  adorned  in 
front  with  statues  a  half  or  a  third  of  life  size,  that  stood  on  elaborately  con- 
structed socles,  set  out  fantastically  with  masks  and  other  ornaments.  These 
were  at  times  executed  in  the  workshops  of  the  first  sculptors  in  bronze  of 
Venice,  and  they  belong  today  among  the  most  sought  after  and  the  highest 
priced  small  bronzes  of  the  Renaissance.  Fire  tongs  and  shovels  were  relative- 
ly plainer,  though  decorated  in  a  similar  way.  Bellows  also  in  richly  carved 
wood  seem  to  have  belonged,  as  in  Florence  and  Rome,  to  the  equipment  of 
the  fireplace  of  the  Cinquecento  (111.  77-79).  That  the  most  sumptuous,  the 
most  characteristic  and  important  pieces,  as  they  adorned  whole  suites  of  rooms 
in  the  princely  palaces,  have  not  been  preserved,  is  shown  by  some  designs  for 
furniture  from  the  late  Renaissance,  as  they  are  found  in  the  collection  of 
drawings  in  the  Uffizi,  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  and  others,  also 
as  we  occasionally  see  them  in  pictures.  I  will  refer  in  this  connection  only 
to  the  painting  of  the  Ferrarese,  Scarsellino,  of  about  the  year  1580,  in  the 
Pitti  Palace,  representing  a  bed  fitted  up  sumptuously  in  a  way  that  suggests 
Florentine  furnishings,  as  they  are  known  to  us  through  Bronzino's  paintings. 
In  Florentine  furniture  the  inlay  was  of  marble  and  semi-precious  stones,  here 
it  is  only  painted,  the  relief  inlay  being  of  imitation  cameo,  but  evidently  by  an 
eminent  artist,  perhaps  one  of  the  two  Dossi,  who  again  and  again  painted  just 
such  bed  frames  for  the  house  of  Este.  The  small  bronze  table  by  the  bed  is 
almost  a  true  picture  of  a  small  Roman  table.  We  find  furniture  resembling 
this  in  other  pictures  by  Scarsellino  (various  paintings  in  the  Borghese  Gallery 
in  Rome)  showing  a  partiality  for  interiors  richly  fitted  up  in  the  style  of  the 
time.  Probably  these  were  state  pieces  that  were  in  the  possession  of  Alfonso  I 
in  his  palaces  at  and  near  Ferrara;  we  can  probably  ascribe  their  construction 
to  Venetian  artists  or  those  under  Venetian  influence,  if  only  because  the  furni- 
ture itself  was  either  made  in  Venice,  with  whose  artists  and  craftsmen  the 
court  of  Ferrara  was  very  actively  connected,  or  Venetians  were  taken  to 
Ferrara  for  the  purpose.  In  any  case  these  give  a  characteristic  picture  of  the 
Venetian  furniture  of  the  middle  of  the  Cinquecento  as  it  adorned  in  like  man- 
ner the  grand  rooms  of  the  Mantuan  palaces. 

Venice,  in  the  transition  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries, 
had  at  length  overthrown  Padua  and  then  in  a  quick  career  of  conquest  swept 
over  Northern   Italy  between   the  Alps  and  the  Po  beyond  Udine  to  the  east, 

34 


and  to  the  other  side  of  Bergamo  on  the  west,  and  at  the  same  time,  though 
hotly  contested,  overrunning  the  strip  of  coast  on  the  sea  as  far  as  Ancona. 
This  whole  "terra  ferma"  was,  consequently,  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance, 
very  dependent  upon  the  ruling  city  in  art  and  craft  work.  From  Padua,  that 
for  a  century  had  possessed  the  most  flourishing  foundry  in  Italy,  came  most 
of  the  small  bronzes  owned  by  Venetians,  while  many  of  the  chests,  tables, 
chairs  and  frames,  designated  in  our  collections  as  Venetian,  came  from  Verona 
and  Brescia.  Until  long  after  the  middle  of  the  Quattrocento  and  on,  domestic 
Late  Gothic  furniture  seems  to  have  persisted,  resulting  in  the  bringing  out  of 
a  very  distinctive  mixed  style.  The  characteristics  of  this  furniture  are  the 
great  simplicity  of  its  form  and  profile  work  and  the  decoraton  through  orna- 
ment and  figure  compositions  etched  or  carved  in  the  flat.  The  ground  was 
painted  in  order  that  the  compositions  might  have  a  more  striking  effect;  pre- 
sumably the  relief  was  brought  out  with  gilding  or  color  originally.  The  chests 
and  small  caskets,  the  latter  generally  of  cedar,  etched  inside  and  out,  show, 
usually,  representations  of  festivals,  allegories,  mythological  motives  and,  more 
rarely,  religious  compositions  which,  from  the  costumes,  must  have  appeared 
ibout  1425-1475.  Since  they  are  now  as  a  rule  colorless  and  much  worn,  they 
are,  owing  to  the  flat  handling  of  the  etching,  not  particularly  effective,  while 
originally  they  must  have  had  a  very  fine  appearance  (111.  103).  A  pair  of 
very  interesting  examples  of  the  chairs  of  this  time  are  in  the  possession  of  Dr. 
Albert  Figdor,  in  Vienna.  They  are  two  large  folding  chairs  made  of  broad 
boards  with  notched  decoration;  one  is  of  Paduan  origin  (Ills.  104  and  105). 
Chairs,  also  of  a  later  time,  preserve  many  of  their  ancient  characteristics,  as  a 
noteworthy  armchair  with  fine  imitation  wickerwork  ornament  shows.  In 
these  chairs  and  chests  a  Longobard  tradition  has  certainly  persisted. 

From  Verona  especially,  numerous  chests  are  preserved,  dating  from  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  or  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  They  are  of  a 
longer  shape,  with  a  flat  top,  the  sides  (excepting  the  unornamented  one)  dec- 
orated with  painted  or  plaster  ornament.  The  front  is  generally  divided  into 
three  parts  and  painted  with  small  allegorical  or  mythological  compositions  in 
landscape,  or  in  the  delicate  leaf  ornament  in  gilded  plaster  or  painting,  that 
betrays  the  school  of  the  Lombardi.  On  the  sides  arms  are  painted,  when  they 
are  not  on  the  front   (111.   106). 

From  the  later  period  of  the  Renaissance  there  is  a  remarkable  number  of 
chests,  chairs,  tables  and  credenze  in  the  villas  of  the  principal  families  of 
Venice,  Verona  and  Brescia,  on  the  Lago  di  Garda,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Brescia;  what  pieces  of  this  kind  come  into  the  dealers'  hands  now,  for  the  most 
part  originated  in  this  locality.  These  generally  colorless  pieces  also  exhibit 
Venetian  characteristics.  They  differ  from  the  productions  of  the  city  of  Venice 
through  purer,  usually  somewhat  insipid,  architectural  forms  and  a  rather  dry 
handling  of  tfie  decoration;  the  Michelangelesque  style  of  Sansovino  prevails 
very  little  here. 

Mantua  and  Ferrara,  whose  ruling  houses  were  famous  throughout  the 
Renaissance,  even  in  Italy,  for  their  love  of  splendor  as  well  as  for  their  taste 

35 


for  the  fine  arts,  had  in  the  fifteenth  century  preserved  a  partially  individual 
character  though  near  Venice,  but  toward  the  end  of  the  century  the  influence 
of  the  lagune  city  on  the  arts  and  crafts  was  growing  constantly  stronger. 
The  High  Renaissance  had,  consequently,  an  essentially  Venetian  character 
here,  even  in  the  fitting  up  of  rooms.  That  these  were  in  both  places  often  ex- 
traordinarily sumptuous  is  proved  by  documents,  and  by  the  furnishings  of 
the  rooms,  that  are  in  part  preserved.  The  Dukes  of  Este  and  Gonzaga  had 
fitted  up  their  castles  more  richly  and  luxuriously  than  the  wealthiest  Venetian 
noble  would  undertake  to;  such  princely  splendor  the  Doge,  as  representative 
of  the  Republic,  might  dare  to  display,  but  each  citizen  of  Venice  must  hold 
himself  always  within  the  exact  limits  of  the  bourgeoisie;  the  whole  body  of 
citizens  watched  over  this  jealously,  and  sought  by  special  laws  to  restrain  the 
ever  resisting  tendency  toward  luxury.  Of  all  this  magnificence  there  are  in- 
deed from  these  two  courts  a  large  number  of  paintings  and  antiquities  as  well 
as  miniatures,  though  scattered  through  the  different  collections;  of  all  the 
furniture,  Gobelins,  and  other  valued  household  objects,  there  is  only  a  small 
amount  about  which  we  have  any  information.  This  is  the  more  to  be  regretted 
as  we  know  through  records  that  much  of  this  furniture  was  constructed  in  the 
prime  of  the  ruling  families  after  designs  by  the  most  eminent  artists,  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  work  and  instead  of  devoting  themselves  to  the  composition  of 
pictures  or  sculpture,  busied  themselves  more  with  all  kinds  of  furnishings, 
stage  settings  and  art  trades,  going  as  far  indeed  as  to  that  pertaining  to  the 
wardrobe  of  their  patrons  and  their  suites,  even  to  the  horses,  falcons  and  dogs. 
Even  artists  like  Cosimo  Tura  and  Dosso  Dossi  sometimes  painted  beds  and 
other  furniture,  sometimes  decorated  horses'  harness,  made  the  scenery  for  a 
play,  or  provided  decorations  for  a  festival,  at  other  times  drawing  designs  for 
embroidery,  Gobelins,  costly  materials,  etc.  The  numerous  and  detailed  records, 
particularly  the  archives  of  the  House  of  Este,  give  us  fuller  and  more  precise 
information  than  we  have  from  any  other  part  of  Italy  concerning  the  intimate 
life  of  the  Italian  princes,  the  fitting  up  of  their  castles  and  other  buildings, 
even  to  the  form  and  construction,  and  the  details  of  the  different  state  pieces 
and  furnishings.  Excellent  examples  of  this  sumptuous  furniture  from  the  old 
princely  possessions  are  the  wedding  chests  of  Paola  Gonzaga,  in  the  Museum 
of  Klagenfurt,  and  a  pair  of  chests  richly  inlaid  with  ivory,  in  the  Graz  Museum. 

From  the  indications  that  appear  on  it,  a  writing  cabinet  that  was  discovered 
in  Costozza,  originating  in  the  last  days  of  the  Early  Renaissance,  must  go 
back  to  the  Gonzaga  family;  it  is  a  brilliant  piece  of  finished  inlay,  with  all  the 
ornament  carried  out  in  the  finest  detail,  though  the  delight  in  intarsia  is  mani- 
fested with  little  advantage  in  the  whole  unrestful  effect.  This  comes  out  in  the 
photographic  illustration  (111.  108  and  109)  in  an  exaggerated  way.  The  piece 
is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum. 

Concerning  Ferrara  we  have  many  contemporary  documents*  also  having 
reference  to  luxury  in  furnishings  during  the  fifteenth  century,  but  we  cannot 
make  a  picture  from  these  of  the  appearance  of  the  pieces  individually.  The 
interesting  frescos   with  representations  from   the  life  of  Borso  d'Este  in   the 

36 


Palazzo  Schifanoja  at  Ferrara  offer  as  little  in  this  direction  as  most  of  the 
frescos  of  the  Quattrocento  in  Italy,  for  the  accessories  to  the  figures  were  as  a 
rule  held  in  the  background  or  given  as  simply  as  possible,  if  not — as  in  the  old 
Ferrarese  paintings  of  the  throne  of  the  Madonna  and  Child — quite  fantas- 
ncally  depicted.  The  weavers,  indeed,  were  all  Netherlanders  or  French,  even  > 
in  later  times.  Netherland  weavers  were  summoned  to  Ferrara  by  Niccolo  III  in 
1436;  under  Leonello,  and  especially  under  Ercole  I,  this  industry  developed  and 
became  the  most  flourishing  in  Italy;  under  Ercole  II  it  had  another  similar 
success  toward  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century;  under  Alfonso,  however,  it 
declined  and  soon  ceased  to  exist.  Yet  about  a  century  later  more  than  five 
hundred  Gobelins  were  in  the  possession  of  these  princely  courts. 

The  long  sojourn  in  Italy  which  these  Flanders  craftsmen  made  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Italian  painters,  doubtless  caused  their  industry  to  take  on  a 
strongly  Italian  character.  This  is  shown  plainly  in  a  series  of  tapestries  by 
Hans  Karcher,  who  was  the  most  eminent  artist  under  Ercole  II.  It  is  possible 
also  that  the  series  sold  at  auction  from  the  Spitzer  collection,  is  his  work. 
Often,  though  not  regularly,  these  artists  worked  from  designs  by  Italian,  par- 
ticularly Ferrarese,  painters;  Cosimo  Tura  in  the  fifteenth  century  and  Dosso 
Dossi  in  the  sixteenth  century  drew  a  great  many  designs  for  them.  These  de- 
signs soon  far  surpassed  what  was  produced  in  Venice,  for  we  find  at  that  time 
great  compositions  of  biblical  or  allegorical  subjects,  after  the  style  of  the  old 
Flanders  tapestries;  a  Gobelin  of  this  sort  in  the  Lenbach-House  at  Munich 
represents  the  Burial  of  Christ,  and  is  woven  from  a  cartoon  by  Cosimo  Tura; 
in  technique  it  is  rather  careless  and  clumsy,  but  has  a  very  picturesque  effect. 

Contemporary  works  of  art  of  the  Late  Renaissance,  especially  of  the  Fer- 
rarese school,  give  us  a  reliable  picture  of  the  sumptuous  furnishings  of  both 
courts.  I  have  mentioned  before  (compare  page  34)  the  paintings  of  the  Fer- 
rarese, Scarsellino,  in  which  are  found  the  likenesses  of  some  of  these  state 
pieces  that  were  probably  made  at  this  time  for  the  fitting  up  of  Duke  Alfonso's 
castle,  from  drawings  by  eminent  painters  who  also  participated  in  the  work. 
Simpler,  but  very  tasteful,  is  a  clavichord  with  the  Duke's  name  on  it.  This  is 
now  in  the  Berliner  Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  and  I  have  already  gone  over  it 
incidentally  in  connection  with  Venetian  furniture.  The  case,  standing  on 
three  slender  legs  without  decoration,  has  ornament  painted  in  color  on  a  dark 
ground,  the  inserted  part,  with  the  musical  works,  being  embellished  with  intar- 
sia  of  wood  and  ivory  of  unusually  beautiful  and  not  over-rich  drawing. 

From  the  pieces  of  cabinet  work  remaining  to  us  from  Bologna  and  the 
dependent  Marches  it  appears  that  they  were  as  characteristic  as  in  Mantua  or 
even  in  Ferrara.  Bologna,  influenced  during  the  Renaissance  in  part  by  Flor- 
ence and  in  part  by  Venice,  nevertheless  maintained  a  certain  independence. 
As  the  Bolognese  furniture  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  distinguished  for 
its  strength  and  the  forceful  management  of  the  materials,  through  simplicity, 
good  proportion  and  plain  but  effective  profile  work,  so  it  has  in  the  Renais- 
sance a  compact  strength  and  adaptation  to  use,  while  in  the  High  Renaissance 
it  unites  with  similar  qualities  a  genial  grace  and  festivity.  From   the  numer- 

37 


ous  castles  of  the  Ancona  March,  as  well  as  from  the  Emilia,  a  quantity  of  fur- 
niture of  this  time  has  been  brought  to  light  by  the  art  dealers,  a  number  of 
examples  coming,  by  this  means,  into  the  public  collections.  As  most  of  these 
have  been  sold  from  Florence  they  are  generally  regarded  erroneously  as  Flor- 
entine furniture.  These  pieces  will  not  indeed  serve  to  give  us  a  superficial 
glimpse  of  the  arrangement  of  the  interiors  of  the  castles  and  dwelling-houses 
of  the  Marches.  What  I  have  put  together  here  on  the  subject  is  only  a  few 
notes  on  the  characteristics  of  the  furniture  that  seems  to  me  to  have  an 
assured  origin  in  Bologna  and  its  environs,  as  I  have  seen  most  of  them  there 
or  in  the  Marches. 

After  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  in  the  Marches  a  quite  distinct  variety 
of  chest  that  was  certainly  carried  over  from  the  Gothic  period  and  seems  to 
have  been  made,  almost  without  change,  until  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. They  have  a  short  thick  form,  smooth,  strong  sides  and  top,  are  not  much 
broader  than  they  are  high,  and  have  by  way  of  ornamentation  only  delicate 
filigree  rosettes  above  and  below  on  the  iron  bands,  and  a  richly  decorated  lock. 
These  seem  more  closely  allied  to  the  German  and  French  chests  of  the  time 
than  they  do  to  the  Italian  (111.  109).  The  walnut  is  in  its  natural  color,  only 
lightly  toned,  and  has  usually  taken  on  a  deep  lustrous  patina.  The  inside  is 
not  empty  and  unornamented,  as  was  formerly  the  rule  in  Italy,  but  running 
around  the  sides  are  quite  small,  low  compartments  that  close  with  a  flap.  These 
were  for  the  reception  of  small  objects,  while  clothing,  tapestries  and  the  like, 
were  laid  in  the  middle.  As  these  chests  because  of  their  strong  build  are 
especially  lasting,  and  on  account  of  their  good  locks  were  very  practical,  a 
larger  number  of  them  were  preserved  in  the  villas;  these  locks  were  something 
quite  unusual  in  Italian  chests,  for  many  of  them,  even  among  the  most  artis- 
tically executed  pieces,  in  the  sixteenth  century  also,  had  supplementary  and 
rough  locks  bored  through  the  decoration.  On  account  of  their  simplicity  and 
lack  of  ornament  these  chests  seldom  come  into  the  museums. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  Cinquecento  chests  took  their  form  and  their 
decoration  from  the  wood  carver,  Formigine,  celebrated  in  Bologna,  or  at 
least  from  the  tendency  for  which  he  beyond  everyone  else  was  responsible; 
for  he  is  himself  a  mythical  personality,  to  whom  is  accredited  all  varieties  of 
the  best  wood  carving  of  the  time  in  Bologna.  The  Formigine  chests  come 
next  to  the  Venetian  chests  of  about  1520-1530.  On  lion  feet,  with  a  sarcopha- 
gus shaped  top,  they  are  without  ornament  excepting  on  the  sides,  which  are 
decorated  in  rather  high  relief  with  armorial  bearings  in  the  middle  and  strong 
plant  tendrils  that  spring  from  a  dolphin  or  a  caryatid  filling  the  corners.  They 
either  have  their  natural  color  or  are  entirely  gilded,  as  a  perfectly  preserved 
example  in  the  Kunstegewerbe  Museum  of  Leipzig,  shows  (III.  110).  These 
Bolognese  chests  lack  the  agreeable  appearance  that  comes  from  light  construc- 
tion, fine  contours  and  beautifully  worked  out  decoration,  as  Bolognese  art 
almost  altogether  lacks  variety;  when  one  has  seen  several  pieces  with  the 
same  motive  repeated,  one  tires  of  them  (111.  111).  The  diversity  Florentine 
chests  had,  even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  thanks  to  the  Michelangelesque  Bar- 

38 


oque  decoration  and  its  various  mixtures  with  pure  High  Renaissance  motives, 
is  wanting  in  this  work,  that  felt  as  little  the  influence  of  Michelangelo  as  did 
Bolognese  art  generally,  although  Bologna  twice  harbored  the  artist  within 
her  walls  for  a  length  of  time,  and  witnessed  here  the  production  of  various 
works  of  his. 

With  these,  and  later  in  the  place  of  the  carved  chests  with  strongly  re- 
lieved plant  ornament,  came,  in  the  second  half  of  the  Cinquecento,  chests 
without  this  carving,  the  sides  receiving  their  embellishment  through  inlay. 
While  intarsia  work  in  other  parts  of  Italy  had  already  practically  disappeared, 
it  arose  here  in  an  individual  manner;  it  would  not,  however,  bear  comparison 
with  that  older  art  of  intarsia.  As  they  filled  a  hollowed  out  design  of  thin 
ornamental  forms  with  a  whitish  paste,  they  found  a  cheap  substitute  for  the 
real  intarsia  (111.  112).  Later  they  turned  back  to  this,  however,  inlaying  the 
dark  polished  walnut  sides  with  lighter  woods;  but  this  itself  was  done  lightly, 
as  deepened  lines  in  the  ornament  or  figure  composition  mostly  provided  the 
shadows,  making  the  effect  quite  picturesque.  Bologna,  whose  art  was  out- 
wardly flourishing  and  celebrated  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
though  living  on  older  art  methods,  preserved  classicism  even  in  her  chests  up 
to  this  late  period. 

The  tables  of  the  Quattrocento  in  the  Marches  have  rough  strength  and 
freshness  in  design  and  execution.  They  are  of  a  typical  form  which  they  held  * 
until  the  middle  of  the  Cinquecento:  the  strong  octagonal  or  more  rarely  the 
round  top  of  medium  size  rests  on  three  stout  legs  terminating  in  lion  feet, 
at  the  joining  of  which  a  pineapple  is  usually  placed.  The  functions  of  sup- 
port, weight  and  stability  of  the  table  could  hardly  be  better  or  more  effect- 
ively expressed  than  here.  With  the  exception  of  the  simple  legs  with  lion 
feet  these  tables  for  the  most  part,  though  not  without  profile  work,  are  other- 
wise unornamented,  which  increases  the  effect  of  strength  (111.  113).  Where 
delicate  ornament  is  found  in  the  lower  part,  under  the  top — which  is  the  case 
with  many  of  the  pieces  that  come  into  the  dealers'  hands  in  Bologna — it  is 
the  work  of  falsifiers,  who  seek  to  beautily  this  simple  furniture  in  order  to 
make  it  sell  better. 

That  the  Renaissance  tables  in  the  Marches  have  regularly  an  octagonal 
form,  that  they  are  so  strong  and  so  heavily  built,  and  are  almost  always  of  the 
same  size  (about  one  meter  across  and  the  same  in  heignt),  has  its  ground  in 
the  build  and  fitting  up  of  the  castles  and  villas;  yet  we  are  as  little  informed 
about  this,  as  about  many  other  important  questions  relating  to  Italian  art 
and  culture.  The  young,  newly  established  Italian  State  had  to  work  so  long 
and  so  hard  to  win  its  position  and  to  organize  its  affairs,  the  greatness  and 
splendor  of  Italian  high  art  had  drawn  all  eyes  so  exclusively  to  it,  as  well  as 
absorbing  all  study,  that  such  questions  have  not  generally  been  considered. 
In  the  mean  time,  however,  much  of  the  material  essential  to  any  answer  to 
these  queries  has  been  destroyed  or  scattered.  So  we  lack  any  support  for  the 
determination  of  further  examples  of  house  furnishings  in  Bologna  and  the 
Marches  and  their  connections.    The  writing  cabinet  illustrated  here  (111.  114), 

39 


that  originated  about  1530,  came  out  of  a  palace  in  the  Marches  (Faenza  or 
some  neighboring  place),  judging  by  indications.  It  is  simple  in  construction 
and  decoration,  of  unusually  agreeable  proportions,  and  has  ornament  that 
exhibits  the  forms  of  the  High  Renaissance  very  clearly  and  delicately  yet  with- 
out any  trace  of  Michelangelo's  influence.  It  is  of  its  kind,  so  far  as  I  know, 
the  only  work  that  is  so  closely  related  to  Florentine  furniture  of  the  time  and 
sort  that  it  must  either  have  been  the  work  of  a  Florentine  or  made  under 
Florentine  influence.  Exactly  this  northern  part  of  the  Ancona  March  was  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Renaissance  almost  a  domain  of  Florentine  art. 


40 


ITALY   IN   THE    NORTHWEST 

We  lack  also  sufficient  support  for  the  making  of  a  reasonably  trustworthy 
picture  of  the  disposition  of  Lombardy  houses  and  of  the  single  pieces  of  furni-* 
ture  from  the  period  of  the  High  Renaissance.  The  frightful  devastation  to 
which  this  particular  part  of  Italy  was  exposed  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury and  in  the  first  decades  of  the  sixteenth  century,  especially  through  the 
invasions  of  the  French  and  later  under  the  domination  of  Spain,  resulted  in 
thoroughly  clearing  out  the  older  house  furnishings.  What  is  preserved  in  the 
Museo  Poldi,  in  the  Museo  del  Castello  and  especially  in  the  palace  of  the 
Bagatti  family  in  Milan,  shows  relationship  with  contemporary  cabinet  work  of 
Venice,  and  indeed  did  not  remain  uninfluenced  by  her  art.  The  furniture  with* 
ivory  inlay  is  generally  characteristic;  because  it  was  constructed  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Pavia  it  has  been  known  as  mobiii  alia  certosina.  Whether  it  really 
was  at  home  here,  or  whether  it  was  transplanted  from  Lombardy,  is  a  question 
that  remains  unanswered.  The  circumstance  that  in  the  transition  of  the  four- 
teenth to  the  fifteenth  century  the  artist  family,  the  Embriacchi,  were  working 
on  their  own  particular  chests,  mirrors,  altars,  etc.,  of  ivory  carving  with  inlaid 
framework,  especially  for  the  Lombard  rulers  and  people  of  rank,  seems  to 
indicate  Venice  as  the  home  of  this  particular  intarsia  art  furniture.  The  fact 
too,  that  in  Near-Asia  quite  similar  intarsia  of  a  high  finish  was  made,  would 
point  to  Venice,  since  until  the  sixteenth  century  she  was  most  powerfully  in- 
fluenced by  the  Orient  in  all  her  industries. 

The  older  pieces  of  this  kind,  indicated  as  Lombard  intarsia  furniture,  go 
back  to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  They  are  mainly  chests  (111.  115  and 
116),  Savonarola  chairs  (111.  118  and  119),  small  caskets  and  mirrors,  more 
rarely  also  writing  cabinets  (117).  The  decoration  is  generally  in  small  geomet- • 
rical  designs  which  are  devised  with  much  taste  and  laid  on  as  a  flat  ornamenta- 
tion. In  larger  pieces,  namely  in  the  chests,  simple  naturalistic  motives  occas- * 
ionally  appear,  such  as  bouquets  and  flowers  in  vases,  but  always  in  a  fine 
conventionalization.  The  furniture,  to  the  advantage  of  the  decoration,  is  al-  • 
ways  simple  in  form  and  provided  with  very  small  and  modest  profile  work, 
so  that  the  large  smooth  surface  might  offer  an  opportunity  for  bringing  out 
the  decoration.  This  plainness  and  the  strong  drawing  of  the  inlaid  ornament 
might  lead  easily  to  a  too  early  dating  of  this  work;  a  chair  of  the  sort,  which 
must  have  originated  toward  the  end  of  the  Quattrocento,  was  mentioned  in  the 
catalogue  of  the  Gedon  auction  in  Munich  in  1884,  as  having  made  its  appear- 
ance at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  or  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

In     the     western     border     provinces,     Piedmont,     Savoy,     and    Liguria,  a 
relation    with    France     is     plainly     evident.       In    Piedmont  and  Savoy  French- 

41 


Burgundian  influence  is  unmistakable,  as  a  quantity  of  good  furni- 
ture from  this  province  in  the  admirable  Museo  Civico  of  Turin  and  in  some 
of  the  noted  castles  of  Piedmont  prove.  That  even  up  to  the  sixteenth  century 
the  Gothic  tradition  held  here,  is  shown  in  the  vigorous  French  forms.  We  can 
follow  this  best  in  the  chests  that  alone  are  at  hand  in  relatively  large 
numbers  (111.  124).  It  is  otherwise  in  Genoa  and  on  the  Riviera.  Here  we  see 
also  in  the  Renaissance  furniture  a  distinct  relationship  with  the  furniture  of 
the  south  of  France,  namely,  with  that  which  had  Lyons  for  its  centre  of  pro- 
duction, though,  it  is  true,  this  may  be  followed  up  only  exceptionally  until  the 
fifteenth  century  when,  expressing  in  general  the  Gothic  characteristics  of 
Liguria,  it  exhibits  an  elongated  Gothic  decoration.  These  pieces  were  little 
considered  and  their  origin  rarely  known  or  taken  account  of;  they  are  found 
in  great  numbers  with  the  over-sumptuous  Lyons  furniture  which  the  French 
and  English  collectors  have  preserved  in  quantity  in  their  palaces,  though  they 
are  generally  inferior  to  these  in  richness  and  artistic  finish  of  the  decoration, 
as  in  the  variety  and  fantasy  of  the  design.  In  consequence  they  are  in  general 
designated  as  French,  or  when  their  Ligurian  origin  is  assured,  they  are  passed 
off  as  imitations  of  the  Lyons  furniture.  The  relation  seems  to  me  to  be  just 
the  opposite:  the  Genoese  furniture  provided  a  model  for  that  of  Lyons;  over 
the  Riviera  the  Renaissance  in  cabinet  work  pressed  toward  France  and  exer- 
cised an  appreciable  influence  over  the  development  of  this  art  in  its  southern 
provinces. 

.  Here  in  Genoa  and  on  the  neighboring  littorale  Renaissance  furniture, 
though  almost  without  exception  from  an  advanced  period,  is  preserved  in  pro- 
portionately greater  quantity  and  of  a  greater  variety  than  in  the  other  western 
provinces  of  Northern  Italy.  The  pieces  have  indeed  strayed  out  into  other 
countries  and  go  now  under  strange  names.  The  chests  do  not  play  the  fore- 
*  most  role,  as  in  the  rest  of  Italy;  in  their  place  appears  the  cabinet  in  two  parts, 
that  elsewhere  in  Italy — as  we  have  seen — was  very  seldom  used  as  house  furni- 
ture. If,  and  how  far,  the  introduction  of  these  pieces  from  the  North  has 
exercised  an  influence  here,  is  at  this  time  hard  to  decide,  since  we  know  so 
little  of  the  cabinet  work  of  Lombardy,  on  which  this  industry,  like  Genoese 
art  in  general,  had  been  dependent  since  the  Trecento.  Netherland  influences 
rhat  at  the  beginning  of  the  Cinquecento  made  themselves  felt  in  Genoese 
painting,  could  not  have  been  proportionately  powerful  in  this  direction,  for 
aside  from  the  difficulty  of  transporting  things  of  such  relatively  small  worth, 
the  habits  of  life  in  the  two  countries  differed  too  much. 

•  In  the  illustration  we  have  a  characteristic  Ligurian  cabinet,  made  in 
Genoa,  that  is  now  in  the  Museum  of  Magdeburg,  and  another  that  is  in  the 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  (111.  120  and  121).  They  consist,  as  a  rule,  of  an 
upper  and  an  under  part,  of  very  nearly  the  same  size,  both  having  double 
doors.  The  structure  is  simple  and  architectural;  the  decoration  on  the  other 
hand  is  very  rich,  but  on  account  of  its  low  relief  is  not  obtrusive  as  it  is  in 
most  of  the  Lyons  furniture.  The  doors  are  each  decorated  as  separate  sur- 
faces; the  framework  takes  the  shape  of  pilasters,  socles  and  mouldings,  and  is 

42 


conventionally  decorated;  the  locks  and  handles  are  here  provided  with  orna- 
ment, mostly  of  a  head  with  open  mouth  or  something  similar,  and  are  toned. 
These  cabinets  are  quite  related  to  the  contemporary  credenze,  among  which  is 
found  the  one  illustrated,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  dealer  in  antiques, 
Stefano  Bardini,  in  Florence  (111.  122).  The  Ligurian  tables  are  also  distinc-  • 
tive  and  more  nearly  related  to  those  of  the  French  than  the  Italian.  The  two  « 
characteristic  broad  feet  are  as  a  rule  bound  together  by  a  cross-piece  that 
serves  at  the  same  time  as  a  base  from  which  two  slender  columns  arise;  these 
support  the  top.  Between  these  pairs  of  pillars  runs  a  small  row  of  delicately 
turned  columns.  A  typical  example  of  a  Ligurian  chair  is  shown  in  a  Genoese 
piece  that,  with  the  twelve  chairs  that  belong  with  it,  is  found  in  private  owner- 
ship in  Berlin  (111.  123).  They  are  distinguished  for  their  rich  iron  work  with 
large  gilded  nails,  and  their  perfect  preservation.  The  wood  is  unusually 
beautiful  mahogany  that  was  first  brought  to  Italy  at  that  time  in  Genoese 
ships,  but  for  a  time  spread  little  into  general  use. 

I  should  attribute  to  Genoa  the  origin  of  a  noteworthy  chest  shown  at 
Rome  in  1885  in  an  exhibition  of  Roman  furniture.  It  is  quite  distinctive,  as 
the  sides,  formerly  always  straight  or  bowed  outward,  have  a  strong  inward 
curve,  like  many  of  the  sarcophagi.  The  base  is  very  strong  and  high,  the  top 
being,  on  the  contrary,  flat.  The  palmetto  design  and  the  festoons  display  the 
soft  full  forms  of  the  Ligurian  furniture.  This  chest,  originating  in  1530,  is 
of  walnut,  partially  gilded. 


43 


ROME   AND    NAPLES 

We  may  assume  for  Rome  great  luxury  in  house  furnishings  as  in  other 
things,  from  trie  fondness  for  art  shown  by  a  number  of  Popes  in  the  Renais- 
sance period,  as  well  as  from  the  great  love  of  display  and  luxury  among  the 
papal  relatives  and  the  rich  clergy,  who  sought  through  the  use  of  their  col- 
lected riches  to  increase  as  much  as  possible  their  fame  and  enjoyment  during 
their  lifetime.  This  is  confirmed  for  us  by  the  records  for  which  we  are  indebted 
to  the  researches  of  E.  Muntz,  Bertolotti  and  others.  Very  little  furniture  is 
preserved  bearing  the  indications  of  a  Roman  derivation,  though  many  Roman 
pieces  appear,  of  a  date  after  about  the  second  or  third  decade  of  the  sixteenth 
century;  almost  all,  indeed,  of  only  one  fixed  variety,  and  this,  chests.  How 
the  love  of  display  among  the  higher  clergy  expressed  itself  in  these  is  proved, 
among  other  things,  by  the  description  of  the  outfit  that  Lucretia  Borgia  re- 
ceived from  her  father,  Pope  Alexander  VIII  on  the  occasion  of  her  marriage 
with  Duke  Ercole  of  Ferrara.  For  the  transport  of  the  wedding  effects  in  the 
sumptuous  chests,  jewel  caskets,  etc.,  from  Rome  to  Ferrara,  a  train  of  several 
hundred  mules  was  required. 

If  we  do  not  include  Raphael's  tapestries,  there  is  hardly  a  piece  of  the 
old  Vatican  furniture  or  of  that  from  other  papal  palaces  left,  or  even  known; 
but  a  suggestion  of  the  artistic  finish  of  these  pieces  in  the  living-rooms  and 
the  rooms  of  state,  in  the  time  of  Julius  II  and  Leo  X,  is  given  us  by  the 
splendidly  carved  doors  and  window  frames  in  the  Stanze.  For  the  making 
of  these  rooms  Raphael  had  called  Giovanni  Barile  from  Siena,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  younger  Luca  della  Robbia  put  the  paving  stones  of  the  floor 
in  place,  as  they  are  yet  preserved,  though  truly  in  a  hardly  recognizable  state. 

In  this  classic  period  even  the  earliest  pieces  approached  that  style  of 
1  furniture  especially  characteristic  of  Rome:  that  furniture  that  is  embellished 
with  carving  in  high  relief,  in  which  the  color  of  the  wood  is  only  lightly  toned 
and  only  rarely  gilded  here  and  there.  They  conform  essentially  with  the  Flor- 
entine furniture,  the  work  being  executed  for  the  most  part  by  Florentine 
cabinet  makers  or  under  the  influence  of  Florentine  architects  and  wood-carvers. 
In  Rome  they  held  their  individual  character,  being  much  less  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Michelangelo  than  of  Raphael.  The  high  relief  of  the  decoration  on  the 
front  and  the  two  small  sides  of  the  chests  has,  in  conception,  composition  and 
modelling,  the  closest  relationship  with  that  found  in  the  paintings  of  Giulio 
Romano,  Polidoro  da  Caravaggio  and  others  of  the  Raphael  school.  Since  in 
the  compositions  chests  even  of  the  kinds  that  have  been  preserved,  appear, 
the  most  of  them  two  or  more  times,  it  is  probable  that  the  design  for  them 
can  be  traced  back  to  such  artists. 

The  compositions  are  almost  exclusively  borrowed  from  ancient  and  Roman 

44 


history  or  classical  mythology.  Most  of  them  have  invariably  two  rich  reliefs 
separated  by  armorial  bearings;  occasionally  the  front  has  several  small  com- 
positions of  one  or  two  figures,  separated  by  pilasters  or  caryatids.  On  the 
smaller  sides  single  figures,  sea  monsters,  and  the  like,  are  generally  found. 
The  arms  are  as  a  rule  in  the  middle,  held  by  two  putti  or  flanked  by  a  pair 
•f  nude  figures  representing  chained  warriors.  The  latter  is  repeated  with 
slight  variations  on  a  whole  group  of  these  chests.  In  a  similar  manner  fettered 
barbarians  in  rich  garments  are  brought  into  the  corners;  these  are  borrowed 
from  Roman  triumphal  arches.  Like  these,  many  of  the  figures  or  groups 
are  copied  more  or  less  freely  from  antique  statues  that  were  found  in  Rome 
at  that  time.  The  preference  for  Roman  history  and  myth  indicates  Rome  as 
the  place  where  the  greater  part  of  these  chests  originated  and  the  armorial 
bearings,  where  these  have  so  far  been  determined,  also  confirms  this  opinion. 

The  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  has  the  greatest  number  of  such  chests. 
Around  the  sides,  against  the  walls  of  the  old  Hall  of  the  Raphael  cartoons, 
stand  sumptuous  chests  of  the  kind,  alternating  with  richly  carved  sgabelli  that 
in  their  perfect  preservation,  old  gilding  and  fine  bronze  colored  patina,  have 
an  exceptionally  good  effect.  The  other  large  museums  possess  either  one  or  a 
few  of  these  pieces.  Two  that  belong  together,  of  especial  excellence  and  pres- 
ervation, with  the  old  partial  gilding  also,  are  in  the  Kaiser  Friedrich-Museum 
in  Berlin,  where  as  a  decoration  they  ornament  the  hall,  with  Raphael's  paint- 
ings. One  of  these  (111.  125)  has  in  two  parts,  separated  by  armorial  bearings, 
a  representation  of  the  death  of  Niobe's  children  from  the  arrows  of  Apollo.  A 
somewhat  later  repetition,  with  a  different  middle  piece,  and  unfortunately  less 
well  preserved,  has  been  taken  out  of  the  old  Museum  and  put  into  the  Kunstge- 
werbe-museum.  A  considerable  number  of  these  chests  is  found  in  private 
ownership  in  the  palaces  of  England  and  France,  especially  in  the  houses  of  the 
Rothschild  family  in  Paris.  The  great  Paris  auctions  of  Renaissance  art  works, 
as  they  were  held  by  Fr.  Spitzer,  Baron  Seillieres,  and  others,  included  many 
such  pieces. 

When  these  chests  stand  against  our  walls  they  generally  have  a  low,  heavy 
effect.  This  is  because  now  they  usually  lack  the  substructure,  which  raised 
them  up  very  much  and  at  the  same  time  protected  them.  We  refer  for  this 
to  the  illustration  of  an  old  Florentine  chest  with  the  under  piece  that  goes  with 
it;  this  is  now  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  (111.  3). 

The  chests,  in  their  vigorous  forms,  rich  carving,  and  partial  gilding,  cor- 
respond with  the  rest  of  the  furniture  used  for  the  fitting  up  of  the  Roman 
palaces  of  the  High  Renaissance.  Sgabelli  form  the  majority  of  sumptuous  pieces 
of  this  kind,  of  Florentine-Roman  derivation,  made  especially  for  Roman  fur- 
nishings. Proportionately  numerous  are  the  carved  bellows,  still  used  as  an 
ornamental  piece  among  the  fittings  of  the  fireplace.  Among  the  museums  the 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  has  again  a  quantity  of  these,  and  indeed  unus- 
ually splendid  ones  (compare  111.  77-79),  the  rest  may  be  sought  in  the  palaces 
of  England  and  France  that  are  fitted  up  with  Renaissance  furnishings.  Only  a 
few  tables  of  a  like  character  have  been  preserved  in  Rome;  they  have  been, 

45 


almost  without  exception,  sold  outside  the  country  (111.  127)  ;  among  them  a 
large  and  splendid  piece,  of  marble  with  bronze  decoration,  from  the  Palazzo 
Massimi,  the  design  of  which  is  ascribed  to  Peruzzi.  One  of  the  most  beautiful 
pieces  of  the  kind,  shown  in  111.  128,  is  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum.  An 
unusually  fine  writing-cabinet  which  appeared  in  Stefano  Bardini's  sale  in 
London,  1902,  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  these  pieces;  according  to  the  armorial 
bearings  it  was  made  for  Cardinal  Farnese  (Pope  Paul  III).  What  is  true  of 
all  the  sumptuous  pieces  of  this  kind  is  noticeable  here,  that  the  side  pieces, 
profiles,  and  details,  are  not  carefully  worked  out  like  the  large  sculptured  piece 
set  in  the  front.  The  discriminating  taste  shown  in  the  simple  furniture  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Cinquecento  and  from  the  second  half  of  the  Quattrocento,  is 
seldom  met  with  here.  A  writing-cabinet,  similar  in  character,  incidentally 
suggests  Florentine  furniture  (111.   130,  compare  page   17). 

So  far  we  have  no  reliable  information  as  to  who  the  artists  were  who  de- 
signed or  carried  out  the  work  on  this  variety  of  furniture.  That  they  were 
natives  of  Florence  seems,  considering  the  character  of  the  work,  indubitable; 
whether  the  pieces  came  out  of  the  workshop  of  the  younger  Tasso,  or  from 
that  of  Baccio  d'Agnolo,  or  others  mentioned  by  Vasari  and  in  the  records  of 
certain  wood-carvers,  is  as  yet  impossible  to  decide.  They  have  so  uniform  a 
character  that  they  could  have  been  distributed  only  among  a  small  group  of 
artists  closely  related  with  each  other.  Most  easily  recognized  is  the  workshop 
of  an  artist  who  by  preference  brought  out  children  and  childrens'  heads,  in 
very  robust  forms.  Since  reliefs  in  Florentine  sandstone,  mostly  with  partial 
gilding,  exactly  corresponding,  come  from  Florence,  this  master  is  doubtless 
a  sculptor  and  a  Florentine.  That  we  must  seek  among  these  artists  prominent 
architects  like  Peruzzi,  Antonio  San  Gallo  and  others,  is  indicated  by  the 
numerous  sketches  for  furniture  that  have  been  preserved,  especially  from  the 
Cinquecento  (particularly  in  the  collections  of  drawings  in  the  Uffizi,  the  Vic- 
toria and  Albert  Museum  and  others).  In  the  High  Renaissance  the  separation 
between  artist  and  craftsman,  the  designer  and  the  artisan  who  carried  out  the 
design,  was  in  a  certain  degree  complete,  especially  where  there  was  a  question 
of  handling  very  sumptuous  and  uniform  decoration. 

Research  among  the  records  has  brought  out  testimony  that  in  Naples  and 
Sicily  also,  a  rich  and  various  cabinet  work  flourished.  The  splendor  loving  court 
of  the  Aragon  rulers  seems  to  have  found  particular  pleasure  in  fitting  up 
palatial  rooms  with  costly  furniture  rich  in  artistic  expression.  These  princes 
kept  their  art  collections  in  expensively  made  cabinets.  But  specifically  Nea- 
politan furniture  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  recognized  first  about  the  middle  of 
the  High  Renaissance.  The  few  pieces  of  the  kind  are  very  similar  to  the 
Roman  pieces  just  described;  they  are  richly  provided  with  strong  heavy  pro- 
file work  and  the  deeply  toned  wood  has  a  beautiful  patina. 

•  In  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  political  and  public  life  of  Italy 
underwent  a  complete  transformation,  in  that  the  dominions  of  small  tyrants 
were  changed  into  principalities  in  the  modern  sense,  and  republics,  aristo- 
cratically   ruled   Venice    in    particular,   vanished.      In    the   place   of    the   ruling 

46 


towns,  on  whose  prosperity  the  development  of  the  Renaissance  depended,  came 
the  princely  courts,  from  that  time  determining  the  forms  of  life  and  affecting 
also  the  furnishing  of  the  houses.  The  new  requirements  to  fit  the  different 
circumstances,  the  demand  for  representation  in  splendor  and  luxury,  made 
themselves  felt  plainly  also  in  the  whole  arrangement  of  the  houses  and  in  all 
ine  furnishings;  while  some  furniture  was  put  in  the  background  or  entirely 
disappeared,  other  quite  new  pieces  came  to  the  front.  The  wall  bench  and  the  * 
chest  were  displaced  by  furniture  for  seating  of  a  different  sort;  the  commode 
came  up  as  a  new  variety  of  furniture,  quickly  causing  the  chests  to  disappear; 
the  tables  were  more  numerous  and  more  various;  the  mirror  became  the  im- 
portant feature  of  the  room,  as,  with  a  table  underneath  for  a  support,  it  had 
the  effect  of  a  large  superb  piece,  reflecting  the  furniture  around  it  and 
doubling  the  splendor  of  the  room.  Another  novelty,  the  chandelier  of  crystal  • 
and  glass  that,  hanging  from  the  ceiling,  often  in  large  numbers  and  in  the 
richest  settings,  lighted  the  rooms,  increasing  their  regal  brilliancy,  making 
them  shine  in  fantastic  lights,  was  very  different  from  the  quiet,  scarcely  ade- 
quate, lighting  of  the  Renaissance  period.  The  bed  was  relegated  to  a  small 
room  and  frequently  occupied  a  very  deep  niche,  the  alccve.  In  short,  modern 
furniture  was  born  in  Italy,  truly  no  longer  through  its  own  power  but  under 
strong  influence,  especially  from  France.  It  is  a  way  of  furnishing  that  only 
recently,  through  the  demands  of  hygiene  for  light  and  air  and  through  prac- 
tical inventions,  has  been  essentially  changed. 


47 


Introduction 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
3 

Foreword            .                .                .                .                .  .6 

I.      Florence  and  Tuscany       ....  7 

II.      Venice  and  the  Mainland                       .                .  27 

III.  Italy  in  the  Northwest      .                ...  41 

IV.  Rome  and  Naples              ....  44 


48 


Plate  I. 


1.     Florentine  Painted  Cassone  about  1410—1420.     Bargello  Museum,  Florence. 


2.     Florentine  Cassone  about  1440.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


"Hj.J,J    ...  „!...,,    -• 


■ 


ILi..vi:Vv  - 


3.  Tuscan  Cassone  with  Gesso  Work  about  1440.  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


Plate  II. 


4.    Tuscan  Cassone  with  Gesso  Work.    Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


-  «  - 


5.    Tuscan  Cassone  with  Gesso  Work.    Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


6.     Florentine  Cassone  about  1440.     Formerly  in  the  Bardini  Collection,  Florence. 


Plate  III. 


— — i M — — — —  _ — - —       -  — ■  i~~     " 


7.     Florentine  Cassone  about  1450.    Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


8.   Florentine  Cassone  with  Intarsia  Decoration  about  1480.   Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  IV. 


iaBMpjpjgBEFBjar~rH,— ; —   '«iiii      ttt — 


i> ~ S35P?3'~iS5S=S3i§^ . 


Wliitf^^^ 


>:  iV.il  i). 


9.     Florentine  Cassone  about  1480.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


10.     Florentine  Cassone  of  the  "Strozzi  Family"  1507. 
Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  V. 


.. , 


11.     Florentine  Cassone  with  Intarsia  Decoration  about  1905 
Prince  Liechtenstein  Collection,  Vienna. 


h  C^ 


12.     Cassone  of  the  "Albert  Family"  about  1530,  Musee  Andre,  Paris. 


J' 


Plate  VI. 


13.     Tuscan  Cassone  about  1580.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


14.     Tuscan  Cassone  about  1575.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


15.     Tuscan  Casket  of  the  15th  Century. 


Plate  VII. 


par 


16. 
Florentine  Jewel  Casket  about  1525.     Kaiser -Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


J^^fR^ 


.■C^^VVV^IS.'.H1^  >^ 


17. 
Florentine  Stucco  Casket  with  Pastiglia  Decoration.     Kunstgewerbe- Museum,  Berlin. 


18. 
Florentine  Bench  end  of  the  15th  Century.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  VIII. 


19.     Florentine  Bench  about  1475.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


20. 
Florentine  Bench  about  1550.     Kaiser- Friedridi -Museum,  Berlin. 


21.     Florentine  Cassapanca   with  Inlaid  Intarsia  Decoration,    E.  Volpi  Collection,   Florence. 


Plate  IX. 


22. 
Florentine  Cassapanca.     Bargello  Museum,  Florence. 


23. 
Florentine  Cassapanca.    Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  X. 


Plate  XI. 


25. 
Florentine  Cassapanca.    Davanzati  Palace,  Florence. 


Plate  XII. 


Florentine  Room  with  Throne  and  Bed,  High  Renaissance  Period. 
From  a  Fresco  by  "Andrea  del  Sardo"  at  Florence. 


Plate  XIII. 


""WT?* 


27. 
Throne  of  "Filippo  Strozzi."     Baron  Moritz  Rothschild  Collection,  Paris. 


Plate  XIV. 


LfcifctttttLL4  Lt4.L4.ittfcU.tktfct.tifi*  miltliiU  ti  itUUi) 


LUXilXTliU-fcLL  fctt<  L4  ttttttttttttfctfcfcjt 


54VU.U  U-U*UL  U  Oi.UU.Ui.UiU;  U-UU^.U-U.U.U«UlU«ltUiU.UiUt«fcUJ.UiUilU«l««IIitJM»t010jUiO!UJlUIUrtlfl|-ll  <I  II 


28. 
Throne  of  "Guiliano  dei  Medici"  about  1510.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  XV. 


29.  30. 

Strozzi  Sgabello.     Dr.  R.  Figdor  Collection,  Vienna. 


Plate  XVI. 


31.     Florentine  Sgabello. 
Kunstgewerbe- Museum,  Berlin. 


VTTn  I  ITill  I  IV 


32.     Florentine  Sgabello. 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum, 
London. 


33.    Florentine  Sgabello. 
Museum   at  Magdeburg. 


Plate  XVII. 


34  35.    Tuscan  Sgabello  and  Stool.    Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


.36.    Florentine  Fold-Stool  of  Wrought  Iron  and  Brass.  Bardini  Collection,  Florenze. 


> 

X 
o 

■4-> 


W     C 


Plate  XIX. 


38. 

Tuscan  Folding  Arm  Chair. 

Dr.  A.  Figdor  Collection,  Vienna. 


39. 

Tuscan  Folding  Chair. 

Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


40.  41. 

Northern  Italian  Leatlv  -  Covered  Arm  Chairs.    Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


Plate  XX. 


42.     Florentine  Arm  Chair  Velvet  Covering. 


43.     Small  Florentine  Chair  about  1550. 


44.     Florentine  Chair  with  cane  Seat. 
Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XXI. 


'MIMIHIimMlniiiii  llllUL^l'lM.M.MJ.HM/n_iti|iliin.vv'':y. 


45. 
Tuscan  Table  about  1530.     In  a  Private  Collection  at  Florence. 


46. 
Florentine  Marble  Table  about  1475. 


Plate  XXII. 


47.     Small  Tuscan  Table  end  of  the  15th  Century. 


48.     Florentine  Table  end  of  the  15th  Century.     Formerly  at  Florence. 


Plate  XXIII. 


w 


Tuscan  Table  end  of  the  15th  Century.    Dr.  A.  Figdor  Collection,  Vienna. 


50 


Tuscan  Table  about  1550.    In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  XXIV. 


51. 

Florentine  Table  about  1550.    Formerly  at  Florence. 


52. 
Florentine  Table  about  1550.     Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XXV. 


53. 
Florentine  Table  about  1550.     In  a  Private  American  CoMection. 


L~ 


5'\. 
Florentine  Table  about  1540.     Torregiani  Palace. 


Plate  XXVI. 


55. 
Tuscan  Credenza  about  1560.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


56. 
Florentine  Credenza  about  1560. 


Plate  XXVII. 


57.     Florentine  Credenza  about  1550.    Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


58 


Florentine  Credenza  about  1550.    Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XXVIII. 


59. 
Tuscan  Credenza  about  1550.     Dr.  Topfer  Collection,  Stettin. 


Plate  XXIX. 


60. 


Florentine  Writing  Cabinet  about  1550.    Otto  Beit  Collection,  London. 


Plato  XXX. 


Flore  ;ry.     In  a  Private  Co'. 


X 

X 
X 
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X 
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CV 

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m 

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— 

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cv 

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— 

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Plate  XXXIII. 


66. 


Tuscan  Desk  Cabinet  about  1580.    Davanzati  Palace,  Florence. 


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Plate  XXXV. 


68.  69. 

Florentine  Pedestals.    In  a  Private  Collection  at  Berlin. 


Plate  XXXVI. 


70. 

Roman  Pedestal  about  1530. 
Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


71. 

Tuscan  Pedestal  about  1570. 

Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


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Plate  XL. 


80. 
Florentine  Clothes  Rack  about  1560. 


81. 
Florentine  Carved  Panel  about  1560.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XLI. 


82. 
Sienese  Cassone  about  1450.     In  a  Private  Collection  at  Florence. 


83. 

Sienese  Jewel  Casket  of  the  15th  Century. 

Otto  Lanz  Collection,  Amsterdam. 


Plate  XLII. 


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84.     Sienese  Cassone  about  1570.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


85.     Casket  by  A.  Barile.     City  Hall,  Siena. 


87.     Sienese  Table  about  1540.     In  a  Private  Collection  at  Vienna. 


Plate  XLIII. 


86.     Synagogue  Throne  about  1525.     (The  Seat  is  a  Cassone  of  a  Later  Period). 
Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XLIV. 


Sienese  Table  about  1560.    Kaiser-Friedridi-Museum,  Berlin. 


89. 
Sienese  Credenza  about  1540.    Kaiser-Friedrich-Museuni,  Berlin. 


Plate  XLV. 


90. 
Sienese  Cabinet  about  1540.     Davanzati  Palace,  Florence. 


Plate  XLVI. 


91.     Umbrian  Chest  with  Drawers  about  1480. 


92.     Umbrian  Table  about  1450.     hi  a  Private  Collection  at  Florence. 


Plate  XLVII. 


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93. 


Large  Venetian  Jewel  Chest  about  1500.     Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  XLVIII. 


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94.     Venetian  Cassone  with  Gesso  Work.     Kunstgewcrbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


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95.    Venetian  Cassone  with  Gesso  Work.     Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


96.     Venetian  Cassone.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  XLIX. 


97. 
Small  Venetian  Jewel  Casket  about  1540.    Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


98. 
Venetian  Table  about  1520.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museutn,  Berlin. 


Plate  L. 


99. 
Venetian  Table  about  1550.     Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum,  Berlin. 


100. 
Large  Venetian  Table  about  1570.    Kaiser-Friedrieh-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  LI. 


101. 


Venetian  Savonarola  Chair  with  Leather  Seat. 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


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101  a.    Venetian  Clavier  about  1550. 


Plate  LII. 


Plate  LIII. 


103. 
Cassone,  Dr.  R.  Figdor  Collection,  Vienna. 


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Plate  LV. 


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106.     Veronese  Cassone  about  1510.     Poldi  Museum,  Milano. 


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108.    Mantuan  Writing  Cabinet  (Opened)  with  Intarsia  Decoration. 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


Plate   LVI. 


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Plate  LVII. 


109.     Provincial  Cassone.     Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


110.     Bologncse  Cassone.     Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Leipzig. 


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111.     Bolognese  Cassone.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  LVIII. 


112.     Bolognese  Cassone  about  1560.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


113.     Provincial  Table. 


Plate  LIX. 


114.     Provincial  Writing  Cabinet.     Kunstgewerbe-Museum,  Berlin. 


Plate  LX. 


115. 
Cassone  Inlaid  with  Certosina.     Victoria  and  Albert  A\useum,  London. 


Plate  LXI. 


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116. 
Cassone  Inlaid  with  Certosina  about  15C0.    Otto  Lanz  Collection,  Amsterdam. 


Plate  LXII. 


117.     Lombardic  Cabinet  about  1550.     0.  Lanz  Collection,  Amsterdam. 


118.     Lombardic  Arm  Chair  about  1500. 
Otto  Lanz  Collection,  Amsterdam. 


119.     Arm  Chair  Inlaid  with  Certosina. 
Dr.  A.  Figdor  Collection,  Vienna. 


Plate  LXIII. 


120. 
Ligurian  Cabinet.     Museum  at  Magdeburg. 


Plate  LXIV. 


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121. 

Ligurian  Cabinet.     Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


Plate  LXV. 


122. 
Ligurian  Credenza.     Formerly  in  the  Bardini  Collection,  Florence. 


Plate  LXVI. 


123. 
Ligurian  Arm  Chair.     In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  LXVII. 


124. 
Savoyan  Cassone  about  1500.    In  a  Private  Collection. 


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125. 
Roman  Cassone  about  1540.    Kaiser-Friedrich-iWuseum,  Berlin. 


Plate  LXVIII. 


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126. 
Roman  Cassone.    Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


127. 
Roman  Table.    In  a  Private  Collection. 


Plate  LXIX. 


128. 
Roman  Table.     Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London. 


Plate  LXX. 


129. 
Writing  Cabinet  of  Pope  Paul  III.     Otto  Beit  Collection,  London. 


Plate  LXXI. 


130. 
Roman  Writing  Desk.     Otto  Beit  Collection,  London. 


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